Aliens aren't really supposed to have long range attack though. Ranged vs melee and all that.
OT: I don't mind if there are tracers, right now they make it almost impossible to see a somewhat good lerk. I'd like to see the tracer effect toned down just a bit though.
I like the change actually... lerks were insane in some places such as crevice or cave prior to this change. Not too keen on the actual visuals of the smoke trail though.
I think it would look far better with a matrix bullet-time style effect. Similar to the refraction effect on cloak. Wouldn't be as obvious either.
My lerk playstyle never really incorporated sitting in one place spiking things for a long time because, for one it's quite boring and secondly you're quite vulnerable as a lerk whenever you're sitting still no matter how far away you are. So I'm fine with this change as I never really thought of the long-distance spike annoyance to be the major strength of the lerk.
I still don't think it's much a problem. Sure it might be toned down, but its not really all that necessary.
Lerks being sneaky are just like skulks being sneaky, you don't attack until you have the best opportunity. Shooting without tracers still gave away that you were there, this just helps them pinpoint where the spikes came from. Lots of times you can still kill a marine on his own before he even figures out what hit him.
Silence is still useful for the quick in and out of a lerk. Most of the time while I'm frantically swooping in and out for the bites I miss all my spikes anyhow.
I would definitely say this is a major change in favor of the marines but so be it.
Why do Lerk-spikes have tracers anyway?
The Lerk's spikes are pretty much insta-hit with no gravitational penalty, so there shouldn't be a need for tracerrounds.
So for an evolving lifeform, it makes no sense to even "research" it...that's not how evolution works.
Instead, how about giving the Lerk's spike-nozzles a faint glow when being used?
A marine will have to start searching for it, in far away dark corners.
Makes the confrontation much more fun and balanced imo...because he's hunting a stealthy lifeform.
JektJoin Date: 2012-02-05Member: 143714Members, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow
Tracer effect is so over the top it can be difficult to even see an accurate lerk during a close - medium range engagement.
Every effect in NS2 is cranked and multiplied by 11. Tone it down.
I play Lerk very often. 70% - 80% of the time I either chased single marines (This is equally easy as doing it with the more costly Fade.) or opened team-attacks at Phase Gates with my spores. But there were those 20% - 30% of the time were it was useful to harass this PG, PowerNode or OBs from a distance. Not to get it destroyed. But to force marine troops from the front line. It was the paragon of the Lerk: HARASSING
Some people may feel special when they claim, that this was not how you should play the Lerk. But they play the Lerk ONLY like the Fade. And if this would be intentional it would be boring redundancy.
Of course a Lerk that was only roost-sniping was under its potential. But don't paint it black and white. There were moments where it was a good move because it gave a tactical advantage for other aliens. Or could hold of an Exo that was about to push into that hive.
The tracers ARE a nerf for the Lerk and was this really needed? Was the Lerk really that badly balanced? Did he won games? (Maybe with spores.) Most people only hate it because it was annoying. But how will you possibly implement "harassing" into a game that is not annoying? That's the whole definition.
There was really no problem to pinpoint a roost-sniping lerk. And with this 100ms delay it was also very dangerous for the lerk. When the marine saw you, you could be sure you have lost more than 50% of your health before you even know he is shooting at you.
My personal conclusion is: It may not be the end of the world for the Lerk. But it has made this class more dull and killed variation in game play.
It is ridiculous and so over-the-top graphics-wise, at least in my opinion. Besides: I think, it seriously dulls alien gameplay and fun... like the skulk movement nerf after nerf after nerf...
Why? Oh, why?
I love this change. It is forcing pub players to actually play. I always hated seeing the worthless lerk doing nothing for the team. Now they get shot for being worthless. It is teaching people to play and contribute to the team.
There are locations in Central Drilling in which are extremely difficult to even hit a lerk, let alone if you could find where the lerk was shooting from.
Lerk sniping was always boring and sort of silly. The marine dependency on power is already a hindering, couple that with the potential for one person to take it out from a distance, and it's just a boring mechanic. Marines don't have anything near the equivalent.
Too much tracer effect, hard to aim at the lerk. This actually ends up helping the battle lerk because you just can't see him. Just tone it down some...tracers are needed, but not this much.
Also, why are the lerk hit boxes so whacked? It's not like he has two huge flappy wings or anything.
Can't say this change has affected my lerk play much, i can kill marines just as easily and i can harass, even destroy structures just as easily.
Sure marines can find me a lot quicker now but that doesn't worry me, as when i harass structures i make sure i do so from a place where i can see all the entrances to that room/area, and as soon as i see marines entering i either fly away, or engage depending on how many marines there are.
If you're roosting and spiking, and a marine is able to enter the room/area, aim at you and kill you before you move away, you deserved to die.
As others have said, i find this change more annoying as a marine, as the smoke effect is so OTT it actually makes aiming at the lerk more difficult.
Being spiked from a distance with no effective way to find the lerk was one of the most annoying things in the game. It could occupy the entire marine team for quite a while. This change makes the game more fun.
I see no one mentioning their delay, either. Am i the only one noticing this and who finds it to be a distraction when moving my spikes onto a target?
I just use alien vision to offset the smoke. It's worse for the poor marines, who have to see through the smoke to hit me fine.
I love this change, actually makes spikes worthwhile in an active engagement. Before the tracers, I would just spike once, bite, and flee. Now I can actually fly around and shoot the marines because the smoke gives me a little cover.
I like the trails, but it wasn't entirely necessary to add them. What was entirely necessary was for them to fix the shooting sound.
Not to toot my own horn, but I'm a veritable sentinel when it comes to sound. Nothing gets past me. Yet there could be a Lerk spiking me from 2 meters above my head, and the audio would make it sound like it could be in 1000 different indistinct locations.
If the audio was fine, this wouldn't have been needed. Unfortunately I think this change is easier than fixing that. Too bad it reduces the effectiveness of silence.
This by no means makes a lerk less effective as a harasser, in rooms like Central on Mineshaft where there's so much room to fly around, I'd say it actually makes harassing more effective. The marines know you're there and will keep sending more and more away from the front until they either kill you or you leave. Myself and another lerk kept something like 3-5 marines running around Central trying to kill us for a good portion of the battle. You've just got to play it smarter now, faster.
When was it decided that it was okay to add something to the game i.e. lerk spike trails that would make all shade evolutions useless?
The same topic was brought up long ago with the observatories that it should not passively decloak and show alien locations on cloaked aliens even after a scan. This idea was shot down due to UWE not wanting aliens to have something that could make something of the marines non effective. Well this just happened with the lerk.
I dont mind the idea in theory. But the effect seems over the top to me. I think it would be good if it were fainter, so that a marine could miss it during a fight, but if its a lone lerk attacking a base or trying to snipe from a ceiling, then its easy enough to trace back when you're looking for it. Not just a giant shoot here sign for anyone that's not completely asleep.
It was kind of rediculous how easy spikes were to use before though, some people were completely oblivious. So it's a good mechanic, just needs tweaking.
I understand why tracers were implemented in the game, but I disagree with tracers completely. With skulk movement severely toned down, tracers are overkill in nerfing alien early game. It seems counter-intuitive to have the aliens only true ranged combat class to be pinpointed instantly. Should we have the marines fire tracers too?
Comments
OT: I don't mind if there are tracers, right now they make it almost impossible to see a somewhat good lerk. I'd like to see the tracer effect toned down just a bit though.
I think it would look far better with a matrix bullet-time style effect. Similar to the refraction effect on cloak. Wouldn't be as obvious either.
Still dislike it, removes any chance of a lerk being sneaky....might as well put a big spot light on him.
Lerks being sneaky are just like skulks being sneaky, you don't attack until you have the best opportunity. Shooting without tracers still gave away that you were there, this just helps them pinpoint where the spikes came from. Lots of times you can still kill a marine on his own before he even figures out what hit him.
Silence is still useful for the quick in and out of a lerk. Most of the time while I'm frantically swooping in and out for the bites I miss all my spikes anyhow.
I would definitely say this is a major change in favor of the marines but so be it.
The Lerk's spikes are pretty much insta-hit with no gravitational penalty, so there shouldn't be a need for tracerrounds.
So for an evolving lifeform, it makes no sense to even "research" it...that's not how evolution works.
Instead, how about giving the Lerk's spike-nozzles a faint glow when being used?
A marine will have to start searching for it, in far away dark corners.
Makes the confrontation much more fun and balanced imo...because he's hunting a stealthy lifeform.
Every effect in NS2 is cranked and multiplied by 11. Tone it down.
Some people may feel special when they claim, that this was not how you should play the Lerk. But they play the Lerk ONLY like the Fade. And if this would be intentional it would be boring redundancy.
Of course a Lerk that was only roost-sniping was under its potential. But don't paint it black and white. There were moments where it was a good move because it gave a tactical advantage for other aliens. Or could hold of an Exo that was about to push into that hive.
The tracers ARE a nerf for the Lerk and was this really needed? Was the Lerk really that badly balanced? Did he won games? (Maybe with spores.) Most people only hate it because it was annoying. But how will you possibly implement "harassing" into a game that is not annoying? That's the whole definition.
There was really no problem to pinpoint a roost-sniping lerk. And with this 100ms delay it was also very dangerous for the lerk. When the marine saw you, you could be sure you have lost more than 50% of your health before you even know he is shooting at you.
My personal conclusion is: It may not be the end of the world for the Lerk. But it has made this class more dull and killed variation in game play.
It is ridiculous and so over-the-top graphics-wise, at least in my opinion. Besides: I think, it seriously dulls alien gameplay and fun... like the skulk movement nerf after nerf after nerf...
Why? Oh, why?
There are locations in Central Drilling in which are extremely difficult to even hit a lerk, let alone if you could find where the lerk was shooting from.
Lerk sniping was always boring and sort of silly. The marine dependency on power is already a hindering, couple that with the potential for one person to take it out from a distance, and it's just a boring mechanic. Marines don't have anything near the equivalent.
Also, why are the lerk hit boxes so whacked? It's not like he has two huge flappy wings or anything.
Sure marines can find me a lot quicker now but that doesn't worry me, as when i harass structures i make sure i do so from a place where i can see all the entrances to that room/area, and as soon as i see marines entering i either fly away, or engage depending on how many marines there are.
If you're roosting and spiking, and a marine is able to enter the room/area, aim at you and kill you before you move away, you deserved to die.
As others have said, i find this change more annoying as a marine, as the smoke effect is so OTT it actually makes aiming at the lerk more difficult.
There's this brilliant thing called "scanning".
I just use alien vision to offset the smoke. It's worse for the poor marines, who have to see through the smoke to hit me fine.
I love this change, actually makes spikes worthwhile in an active engagement. Before the tracers, I would just spike once, bite, and flee. Now I can actually fly around and shoot the marines because the smoke gives me a little cover.
Not to toot my own horn, but I'm a veritable sentinel when it comes to sound. Nothing gets past me. Yet there could be a Lerk spiking me from 2 meters above my head, and the audio would make it sound like it could be in 1000 different indistinct locations.
If the audio was fine, this wouldn't have been needed. Unfortunately I think this change is easier than fixing that. Too bad it reduces the effectiveness of silence.
The same topic was brought up long ago with the observatories that it should not passively decloak and show alien locations on cloaked aliens even after a scan. This idea was shot down due to UWE not wanting aliens to have something that could make something of the marines non effective. Well this just happened with the lerk.
It was kind of rediculous how easy spikes were to use before though, some people were completely oblivious. So it's a good mechanic, just needs tweaking.
They do
--> If a Lerk chooses a shade upgrade (Silence or Camo) he will not fire tracers anymore.
That would be a fine compromise, I guess.