There seems to be something wrong with the camo, at least for me. I can hold down shift and carefully walk over a wall while cloaked, but I notice I go in and out of camo while doing that. I noticed that trying to use camo without Alien Vision activated. It just ruins any surprise moment. Also because it's hard to see the state in Alien Vision I keep holding shift just long enough for the Marine to kill me without knowing I actually decloaked. This happened almost all the time so I don't know what else might be wrong with the Camo, and I havn't seen the Camo from a Marine perspective yet. These are just some first impressions I had during my play tonight.
There seems to be something wrong with the camo, at least for me. I can hold down shift and carefully walk over a wall while cloaked, but I notice I go in and out of camo while doing that. I noticed that trying to use camo without Alien Vision activated. It just ruins any surprise moment. Also because it's hard to see the state in Alien Vision I keep holding shift just long enough for the Marine to kill me without knowing I actually decloaked. This happened almost all the time so I don't know what else might be wrong with the Camo, and I havn't seen the Camo from a Marine perspective yet. These are just some first impressions I had during my play tonight.
Genjin, while you are walking when cloaked you are not fully invisible, you're 80% invisible, enough that marines can see you. Only by being still, now, can they not see you cloaked.
I, for one, don't like this change whatsoever. Cloak is absolutely useless.
Being completely invisible is not camo... being barely visible is.
Camo as traditionally viewed cannot work in an FPS game for many, many reasons. It was fine, allbeit too easy to use, as is. It will now be ignored in favor of "better" upgrades. Instead of having upgrades all be options and equally viable, the tradition of simply BETTER upgrades continues.
I think what would be really interesting is if they now made it possible for you to take both camo and silence at the same time (or alternatively, as soon as they're researched it's given to all aliens automatically, like arms lab).
With these changes, an attentive marine can now spot any alien trying to sneak up on them without needing a scan.
And of course a scan will reveal any alien, even if they're still and in 100% camo.
But if you could take both at the same time, it might make Shade a worthwhile hive.
It would also be a lot of fun to move around silently at full speed when hiding behind some object, then going into camo and playing Red Light Green Light with marines.
I am completely in favor of partial cloak, but I was hoping it would have a silver lining(i.e. a useful partial cloak at full speed) rather than being a straight nerf in every way from before. It need a redesign, not a nerf.
I think camo and silence should be combined into one upgrade "stealth", and an additional shade tech added which would be some sort of focus/scent of fear/etc type upgrade.
Since the faster you move, the more visible you become with Camouflage, holding the crouch key will immediately return you to 90% invisibility then quickly to 100% if you stay still. However, the combat modifier applies, so this only works If you haven't attacked, been attacked or jumped recently.
Note: as Skulk, crouch will drop you from walls, so use shift key instead. As Gorge, you can also do this right after a Belly Slide!
IronHorseDeveloper, QA Manager, Technical Support & contributorJoin Date: 2010-05-08Member: 71669Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Subnautica Playtester, Subnautica PT Lead, Pistachionauts
Like Zek, I've suggested that cloak be made a viable combat upgrade by allowing you to go near full speed (maybe one less) with the new transparent shader, until you attack or are hit- but still make plenty of noise (since the current shift walk has the added benefit of silence)
This way you're not notably visible while going very slow and its now a viable, yet still counter-able upgrade.
"Commander Flayra has spent the morning working on new Cloaking mechanics and effects. The ability never felt right, and in Gorgeous (our upcoming massive update) it is going to get a whole lot more responsive, good looking, fun and skill-based!"
BS flayra.... the camo change is just a flat out nerf.... if "fun" and "skill-based" means, "now nearly useless"..... then sure.
I think camo and silence should be combined into one upgrade "stealth", and an additional shade tech added which would be some sort of focus/scent of fear/etc type upgrade.
This would also be pretty awesome. Stealth isn't a good focus for an entire upgrade path, since it's so much less important for other life forms than it is for Skulks.
"Commander Flayra has spent the morning working on new Cloaking mechanics and effects. The ability never felt right, and in Gorgeous (our upcoming massive update) it is going to get a whole lot more responsive, good looking, fun and skill-based!"
BS flayra.... the camo change is just a flat out nerf.... if "fun" and "skill-based" means, "now nearly useless"..... then sure.
At the very least we should be able to move at full speed in the semi-visible mode until we attack or are attacked. There would still be footstep sounds and it's not like the shader is difficult to see when moving.
Basically, I think this is... yet again, another case where we are gonna see too many posters jumping the gun, thinking the only way to deal with a problem is to face it directly, without looking at the periphery (namely, something related to camouflage: observatories).
Camo is in a good place, where it should've been from the start. Movement and cloaking should work like this, it makes sense (risk/reward), and is fair for combating players.
he intervention of a Marine commander constantly doing scans and having to build was bad design; an extra load on the commander from a team that depends too much.
The problem now, of course, is seeing whether observatories need to take a hit in some way, which I think is within reason if people continue to dislike camouflage (even just for fun). I've said it before: camo is fine. The effect is great.
IronHorseDeveloper, QA Manager, Technical Support & contributorJoin Date: 2010-05-08Member: 71669Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Subnautica Playtester, Subnautica PT Lead, Pistachionauts
edited March 2013
The effect is great, yes.
But its easily seen. Easily seen + slow = suicide, imo.
Shooting at that effect as it ran on the walls would be way more difficult and fun for both sides
Yeah I think full speed camo would be completely fine even with relatively high transparency. A fast moving blur effect is easy to spot. All you have to do is clip the skulk with a single bullet to nullify his camo.
I don't know what you guys expected. We've had 50 page long threads about how to change camo, but no proper solutions. Kinda lot to expect the devs to come up with one, in a large content patch like Gorgeous.
My suggestion is still awesome, albeit impossible to implement prolly: Full camo when standing still, full camo when moving if the marine watching you is moving, but if the marine watching you is standing still, he sees you while you move in camo. (as a 10% blur)
The effect is great, yes.
But its easily seen. Easily seen + slow = suicide, imo.
Shooting at that effect as it ran on the walls would be way more difficult and fun for both sides
Sure. As long at the relationship between camo and movement remains fair and fun (of course).
I don't know what you guys expected. We've had 50 page long threads about how to change camo, but no proper solutions. Kinda lot to expect the devs to come up with one, in a large content patch like Gorgeous.
My suggestion is still awesome, albeit impossible to implement prolly: Full camo when standing still, full camo when moving if the marine watching you is moving, but if the marine watching you is standing still, he sees you while you move in camo. (as a 10% blur)
The effect is great, yes.
But its easily seen. Easily seen + slow = suicide, imo.
Shooting at that effect as it ran on the walls would be way more difficult and fun for both sides
Really I dont get it, I thought we had sorted out cammo during the beta, we tried all sorts of different effects delays, transparency/visibility levels etc etc. Was it not concluded that not being 100% invisible meant you might as well not be invisible at all which was why we ended up with 100%.
Having the speed penalty along with visibility...I am sorry this is one of those times the changes made by UWE leave me flabbergast.
I guess if we only want to see shift - crag or crag - shift combo's this is a great way of achieving that.
Shade been seen as the poor upgrade choice for a long time....this now cements it.
I thought the idea of a scanner that could be purchased at armoury had best solution.
Either the flash light that cuases a glimmer when it was shined on a camo'd surface
or
Some short range motion tracking device, you can purchase, so other marines within x mtres of you when you have it out can see a blip on their screen.
Finding khamms that like to do anything but crag shift or shift crag was rare before...wont be long before they are even rarer.
I find this rather funny as camo is more or less back to its pre-buff state. So what does this mean exactly? Before the 100% invisibility buff patch, no comm used shade first/second as it was pretty useless in comparison to shift/crag. After the patch? Well it became a viable first hive in pub games and the metagame shifted to marine scans and obs everywhere. Aliens dominated quite a bit in the games I participated with shade first, but the players adapted and the advantage was mitigated as the players got better.
So the devs reverted shade back to when no sane comm would use except as a third hive when the reason it was buffed in the first place was so it would be a viable first hive. Then of course this does nothing but promote camping even further as you're only fully invisible when you aren't moving...
I actually like the change as well. Just change the way you use and think about it. With the current implementation, camo is better used for laying ambushes rather than stealthily walking right up to someone straight at you. Next, 80% visibility isn't *useless. It can be used to walk past guarded entrances at medium to long distances without a marine noticing you. If you want to run full speed, probably away from combat, you become fully visible. This seems well balanced to me. Whining about the new change without giving time to adapt to using it is stupid.
On a side note, the game cannot grow/evolve unless you guys give the devs a chance to experiment with changes. Some changes WILL be mistakes, but making mistakes is good in the end.
Now carapace and celerity are pretty much the only useful upgrades left in the game. UWE seriously needs to take a look at their upgrade system and sort this mess to be honest, it's not okay for only 2/6 possible upgrades to be viable.
Now carapace and celerity are pretty much the only useful upgrades left in the game. UWE seriously needs to take a look at their upgrade system and sort this mess to be honest, it's not okay for only 2/6 possible upgrades to be viable.
I don't understand how silence still isn't good? I think it's the second best upgrade myself, after cara of course.
Now carapace and celerity are pretty much the only useful upgrades left in the game. UWE seriously needs to take a look at their upgrade system and sort this mess to be honest, it's not okay for only 2/6 possible upgrades to be viable.
Silence has't changed, right? So the Carapace - Silence upgrade path used in many comp teams is still fully viable. Adrenaline for bilebomb is viable, silence for skulks, lerks, fades, and for saving gorges from being hunted down across the map is still viable.
You are right in the premise that some upgrades are flat out better than others, however. In an ideal world, it would be perfectly valid to choose any of the 6 upgrades as your first. Honestly though, I don't know if that is achievable in any form. That's not to say it shouldn't be a goal, though!
Comments
And yes, Camo sucks now.
The point of ideal camo is to blend you in as much as possible to the point of being invisible. Sadly, this is not the implementation anymore.
Genjin, while you are walking when cloaked you are not fully invisible, you're 80% invisible, enough that marines can see you. Only by being still, now, can they not see you cloaked.
I, for one, don't like this change whatsoever. Cloak is absolutely useless.
Camo as traditionally viewed cannot work in an FPS game for many, many reasons. It was fine, allbeit too easy to use, as is. It will now be ignored in favor of "better" upgrades. Instead of having upgrades all be options and equally viable, the tradition of simply BETTER upgrades continues.
With these changes, an attentive marine can now spot any alien trying to sneak up on them without needing a scan.
And of course a scan will reveal any alien, even if they're still and in 100% camo.
But if you could take both at the same time, it might make Shade a worthwhile hive.
It would also be a lot of fun to move around silently at full speed when hiding behind some object, then going into camo and playing Red Light Green Light with marines.
Since the faster you move, the more visible you become with Camouflage, holding the crouch key will immediately return you to 90% invisibility then quickly to 100% if you stay still. However, the combat modifier applies, so this only works If you haven't attacked, been attacked or jumped recently.
Note: as Skulk, crouch will drop you from walls, so use shift key instead. As Gorge, you can also do this right after a Belly Slide!
This way you're not notably visible while going very slow and its now a viable, yet still counter-able upgrade.
BS flayra.... the camo change is just a flat out nerf.... if "fun" and "skill-based" means, "now nearly useless"..... then sure.
This would also be pretty awesome. Stealth isn't a good focus for an entire upgrade path, since it's so much less important for other life forms than it is for Skulks.
Dot. Grandstanding at its finest.
So far, it's been severely weakened. Least it looks pretty.
Waiting till the after the weekend to make a final call on it.
At the very least we should be able to move at full speed in the semi-visible mode until we attack or are attacked. There would still be footstep sounds and it's not like the shader is difficult to see when moving.
Basically, I think this is... yet again, another case where we are gonna see too many posters jumping the gun, thinking the only way to deal with a problem is to face it directly, without looking at the periphery (namely, something related to camouflage: observatories).
Camo is in a good place, where it should've been from the start. Movement and cloaking should work like this, it makes sense (risk/reward), and is fair for combating players.
he intervention of a Marine commander constantly doing scans and having to build was bad design; an extra load on the commander from a team that depends too much.
The problem now, of course, is seeing whether observatories need to take a hit in some way, which I think is within reason if people continue to dislike camouflage (even just for fun). I've said it before: camo is fine. The effect is great.
But its easily seen. Easily seen + slow = suicide, imo.
Shooting at that effect as it ran on the walls would be way more difficult and fun for both sides
My suggestion is still awesome, albeit impossible to implement prolly: Full camo when standing still, full camo when moving if the marine watching you is moving, but if the marine watching you is standing still, he sees you while you move in camo. (as a 10% blur)
This idea makes no sense at all, and i love it.
Really I dont get it, I thought we had sorted out cammo during the beta, we tried all sorts of different effects delays, transparency/visibility levels etc etc. Was it not concluded that not being 100% invisible meant you might as well not be invisible at all which was why we ended up with 100%.
Having the speed penalty along with visibility...I am sorry this is one of those times the changes made by UWE leave me flabbergast.
I guess if we only want to see shift - crag or crag - shift combo's this is a great way of achieving that.
Shade been seen as the poor upgrade choice for a long time....this now cements it.
I thought the idea of a scanner that could be purchased at armoury had best solution.
Either the flash light that cuases a glimmer when it was shined on a camo'd surface
or
Some short range motion tracking device, you can purchase, so other marines within x mtres of you when you have it out can see a blip on their screen.
Finding khamms that like to do anything but crag shift or shift crag was rare before...wont be long before they are even rarer.
So the devs reverted shade back to when no sane comm would use except as a third hive when the reason it was buffed in the first place was so it would be a viable first hive. Then of course this does nothing but promote camping even further as you're only fully invisible when you aren't moving...
On a side note, the game cannot grow/evolve unless you guys give the devs a chance to experiment with changes. Some changes WILL be mistakes, but making mistakes is good in the end.
I don't understand how silence still isn't good? I think it's the second best upgrade myself, after cara of course.
Silence has't changed, right? So the Carapace - Silence upgrade path used in many comp teams is still fully viable. Adrenaline for bilebomb is viable, silence for skulks, lerks, fades, and for saving gorges from being hunted down across the map is still viable.
You are right in the premise that some upgrades are flat out better than others, however. In an ideal world, it would be perfectly valid to choose any of the 6 upgrades as your first. Honestly though, I don't know if that is achievable in any form. That's not to say it shouldn't be a goal, though!