13 without celerity would be too fast, we already know that. I think 11.5 is a good topend for non celerity skulks, at least for now. With the poor marine movement currently I dont think skulks need any more early game boosts, the aliens only really have a small window from ~6-9 minutes where they are usually at a disadvantage. I still think its a poor timing choice to be buffing aliens, especially given how marine gameplay is currently.
Any plans for upcoming changes? There hasn't been much of an update to the mod in a while and marines are still turtling like hell.
Something along the lines of 4th Biomass, better 3rd Hive abilities, better Crag trait scaling on higher lifeforms, increase Crag heal rate, Onos buff and 1 CC nerf.
Also, is the new cysting system changed in any way from the mechanics of 250, other than the visuals? Yesterday I had a match where I was unable to cyst into The Neck on Veil from both C12 and Pipeline. The cysts were showing green but no connection was drawn to other cysts in the proximity. Might have been a usual pathing bug of the old system, though. But it was frustrating as well because it prevented me from using Whips to fight off the Sentries that marines were placing there. (We had a lot of greenies on the server, so nobody would go Gorge and know how to take care of the problem.)
I feel as though Carapace is underpowered on higher lifeforms when compared to Regeneration. To fix this, I would suggest:
- an increase of 10, 20, and 50 to the Carapace bonus of the Lerk, Fade, and Onos respectively.
- a reduction to the in-combat Regeneration by 1%.
Umbra still seems too cheap energy-wise, I'm not sure what a good cost would be.
I also feel that shotguns are still a bit too powerful. A reduction in shell capacity to the 6 previously tested would help resolve this.
The addition of an required research to open up Grenade Launchers and Flamethrowers goes a long way towards solving the 'spam' problem. I would suggest an increase in Grenade Launcher cost to 20. Flamethrower damage and ammo should be reduced a little, the range and width seems fine.
I think marines need something else tied to a second tech point. A good choice for this seems to be nanoshield. It's unintuitive that the research is on the CC.
My post from ~7 pages back. I think this is a good place to start.
In addition, I would suggest increasing the unupgraded Onos armor by 50-100. The current 450 seems a little low.
I dont feel like FTs are really overpowered right now. Their poor range still requires a Jetpack to be viable. Id say give it some more time. let people adjust to countering them.
The only really big issue I have with marine balance is the GL. For an anti-structure weapon, it still fairs really good in self-defense, now that projectiles are easier to aim. And if a friend is in a fight, or you expect some aliens to come down a corridor all you have to do is spam the hallway, and you deal a massive amount of damage for what is, at best, just spamming (and at worst, missing).
The worst part is, any obvious fix to those problems would just make the weapon less fun. Its just a really weird weapon that Marines honestly dont even need. Yes its good at dealing lots of structure damage, but at the cost of facilitating long turtley stalemates for the marines. Arcs, FTs and minigun exos fill the same role without that negative effect on gameplay.
A rework of the weapon might be fun. keep the damage but make it a one shot, explode on surface kind of weapon? Something to provide an alternative to the shotgun, that can deal good long ranged damage to buildings, but doesnt fill up a hallway with damage for several seconds.
Having to charge the shot of the GL to make it shoot further would probably help with the spam aspect of it. If you want to get any decent range with it, you have to reduce your effective rate of fire, giving aliens a chance to counter.
Likewise should the direct hit with the GL do more damage then if you charged it long enough but not explode on impact if the charging was too short. That way you reward Shotgun-like aiming skill where single precise hits at the right time give a better result than just hit'n'hope.
The only concern is that it would probably require a rework of the current GL netcode again, since I guess that different velocities depending on millisecond differences in releasing the trigger won't be handled well in the current trajectory prediction and UDP-based network replication.
The new LMG is definitely interesting, though I think most players will continue associating the old LMG model with an actual LMG in stength and not the stronger more HMG type weapon it is here. So if this actually makes it into the real game, I reckon it would be better to provide a new model, or perhaps touch the model up a little to make the change clear. (Bigger magazines?)...
Aside from that, the game has taken some big strides forward but there are still some things I would REALLY like to see addressed, personally.
- Sentry batteries are completely unnecessary, they make already weak sentries even more vulnerable to bilebomb (having to stack them all in one place) and do nothing that power node limitations and/or suppy cap couldn't take care of better.
- Onos endgame viability, this has been brought up both here and in seperate threads so I will leave it at that.
- Alien endgame (3rd/4th hive) power needs some bigger punch. Allow aliens to scale biomass past third hive, make the alien third hive abilities more potent or give aliens a better way to end turtles at the third hive in general. (Without requiring high amounts of coordination, amounts that are troublesome to come by in pubs)
- Biomass upgrade choice, please bring back some control over which upgrades to pick when and affect timing. This was one of my favorite features in the earlier builds and actually made for some very interesting strategic choices... Also, being able to get leap on just one hive was a great way for aliens to stay in the game even if they didn't have the best start. As it stands, aliens are just as shafted on one hive currently as they were before 250. Alien commander is also pretty stale in general, with very little diversity in play between games. If early leap is a problem, why not consider having upgrades scale based on hives just as well.
- Upgrades on chambers. I honestly don't understand this change, all this does is further confuse new players comming as to where they can find what upgrade. We already have biomass and hives as essentially a pre-req tech, surely the extra 10 t.res needed for some chamber isn't going to make any notable difference in timing? (Since I'm guessing that is why this change was made) It just feels incredibly pointless and downright annoying to have to find the correct chamber just to get to the right upgrade. You may as well just increase biomass or the upgrade cost by 5 - 10 for a similar result in tech timing.
- Lifeform explosions, yea I know we've been over this many times now but we still have to find a way to deal with those.
- Marine 2nd CC. It should be either significant or not there at all, imo it would be better if A/W3 was tied to the 2nd CC as well as currently, if you don't go down the exo path, you don't need a second CC at all.
- Early game. It was amazing when extractors were 15 t.res and the early game in particular lasted a good 5 or so minutes longer as a result. Please consider bringing this back, it is by far the most enjoyable aspect of the game and a longer early game may in fact also entice less players to save for higher upgrades (as they are further down the road), which means you may see more gorges and lerks and early marine weaponry.
- Marine weapon recycling, perhaps have a limit to the amount of recycling they can receive (Sort of durability)? That way, particularly in turtles you would no longer see infinite weapon recycling at least... Alternatively you could just consider reducing the time weapons remain on the ground.
I know its a big list, though most of them are fairly straight forward to address at least :P.
SewlekThe programmer previously known as SchimmelJoin Date: 2003-05-13Member: 16247Members, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Gold, Subnautica Developer
The new LMG is definitely interesting, though I think most players will continue associating the old LMG model with an actual LMG in stength and not the stronger more HMG type weapon it is here. So if this actually makes it into the real game, I reckon it would be better to provide a new model, or perhaps touch the model up a little to make the change clear. (Bigger magazines?)...
that wont make it into the real game. if we add a new weapon, it will come with a suitable model and sounds
Evil_IceJoin Date: 2004-07-09Member: 29827Members, Squad Five Blue
Personally, I'd love to hear more feedback on the additional rifle implementation, however, what is really important here is stressing to people that the current model configurations are purely PLACEHOLDERS. Hell, I don't even like that old SMG/LMG hack I did that's being used, but it's far more temporary than you use, and I'm far more pleased with the masterpiece I have hidden away from the public eye.
Maybe instead of bulking up the old LMG, we need to further punify the default rifle, muahaha...
Played the mod for a bit, and I feel like I'm aiming better with the smg for some reason.
But as much as I tried to regard it with an open mind, playing with the lmg confirmed my hypothesis that its just a boring weapon to have on the field. Wouldn't you rather have players picking up different guns with varied and specialized playstyles as the game goes on? The lmg feels like a res suck that just offers you some passive upgrades for the normal smg. I don't know what its like being on the receiving end of it, but to actually spend res on it didn't feel like a waste, at least. However, if I'm gonna spend res on a weapon, I'd prefer it to give new gameplay experiences.
AurOn2COOKIES! FREEDOM, AND BISCUITS!AustraliaJoin Date: 2012-01-13Member: 140224Members, Forum Moderators, NS2 Playtester, Forum staff
Hey sewlek, have you tried to implement Player-sentries (like in last stand, of course), and possibly player-whips? (placed like Hydras, i suppose?)
This would enforce a "static defenses are ONLY placeable with personal resources, and by persons who are "ground forces" (i.e non commanders) Only" Rule towards static defense? And see how it works out?
not exactly fond of commanders ruling half the static defenses mob and marines/gorges the other half.
FrozenNew York, NYJoin Date: 2010-07-02Member: 72228Members, Constellation
Idea: Robotics Factories do not need to be powered. I think this would promote proper sieges in public and competitive play.
Can anyone think of any reasons why this would be imbalanced? The only thing I see is power surge will be available even if the room with your turret factor loses power.
Idea: Robotics Factories do not need to be powered. I think this would promote proper sieges in public and competitive play.
Can anyone think of any reasons why this would be imbalanced? The only thing I see is power surge will be available even if the room with your turret factor loses power.
Moving ARC is one of the weakness of them, when Marines did it the aliens can easily spot them and have times to organize themself and back to base, if marines can do sneaky ARCs without just making the node it could be really OP.
Idea: Robotics Factories do not need to be powered. I think this would promote proper sieges in public and competitive play.
Can anyone think of any reasons why this would be imbalanced? The only thing I see is power surge will be available even if the room with your turret factor loses power.
Moving ARC is one of the weakness of them, when Marines did it the aliens can easily spot them and have times to organize themself and back to base, if marines can do sneaky ARCs without just making the node it could be really OP.
Good point. I guess I'm biased in my suggestion since I won't build my turret factory far away. I always place it so the arcs are in position within 5 seconds or I just don't siege
Hey sewlek, have you tried to implement Player-sentries (like in last stand, of course), and possibly player-whips? (placed like Hydras, i suppose?)
This would enforce a "static defenses are ONLY placeable with personal resources, and by persons who are "ground forces" (i.e non commanders) Only" Rule towards static defense? And see how it works out?
not exactly fond of commanders ruling half the static defenses mob and marines/gorges the other half.
Would not really work with Whips, given the aspect that the Khammander is supposed to have control over them to move them around as needed. In some aspects are they the alien-pendant to ARCs with their Bombard ability. Gorges already have Hydras as player-deployed defensive structures.
Sorry if this is the wrong place to suggest, but would a rock paper scissors rework of the game ever be considered?
I’m thinking it could reduce the prevalence of life form / equipment explosions.
Just as a rough idea.
Marines:
LMG – stock weapon, left about the same as it is.
Shotgun – rate of fire decreased, damage bumped up slightly
Grenade Launcher – damage type changed to structural, while rate of fire halved such that it does about the same amount of damage to structures as it does now, but significantly less effective vs units.
Flame Thrower – damage changed to do more damage to alien energy, but less to health. Give it about the same effectiveness vs structures.
Jet pack – change ground walking speed to half (you have a giant piece of metal strapped to your back afterall), air speed left unchanged.
Exos – this is sort of balanced already, but I think either the armor or the damage should come down more, along with a cost decrease.
Aliens:
Skulk – left alone
Lerk – left alone – possibly a little less armor with a corresponding cost decrease
Gorge – probably in a good place, though maybe increase the cost of his turret but also the damage it can do. And – if you could give him more of a support roll, add an option to make miniature versions of the big 3 alien defensive structures (crag, shift, shade). If that’s done, bile bomb should probably be weakened.
Fade – increase damage to infantry, half armor, half price – makes him a true assassin, but now is easier to kill, but also easier to buy back.
Onos – reduce base damage but change all damage types to structural, increase armor, reduce cost. He becomes more of a bunker buster / meat shield for the weaker units. Change stomp to do damage to structures. Lower his cost such that he’s worth getting in his weaker form.
General change:
Res towers cheaper and also a bit weaker. –since all units / equipment would be cheaper, you can afford res towers dying more often.
And if all that works, then also possibly a rework on how commanders work, giving them a bit more "abilities" to interact with other players.
Oh, and I was thinking with all those changes, that cost reductions should be taken as well to encourage varieties of use.
The solution is to figure out a way to force players to use pres early game and not just save all pres for shotgun/fade.
Yes! RPS requirements!
Like not having gorges be 5 pres... and removing drifter building.
As long as expansion only optionally requires player assistance/interaction, it will only worsen explosions. Roles are needed.
If gorges in NS1 figured out they needed to drop a hive, i'm pretty sure gorges will coordinate with commanders to assist expansion.
With good early gorging, you'll still need a lerk asap, so the number that can go fade becomes really limited.
Spammy gorges? Solved.
Early skulk rush stategy? Really risky now.
Fade explosions? Notably lessened/Solved.
(6v6 teams = back to NS1's 1 to 2 fades again... 1 gorge, 1 lerk, 1 fade, 1 harassing/RT skulk/Onos + one more for any of those roles)
Flamethrowers were OP as hell before. Tons of ammo, decent direct damage, DOT, drained alien energy, disabled structure functions, cleared infestation quickly, hard counters to lerk and enzyme sprays. And to top it off no skill was required
A lot of these problems are still around but the fact that you can't get direct kills as easily anymore certainly helps make it more of a support weapon instead of an all purpose weapon
Flamethrowers were OP as hell before. Tons of ammo, decent direct damage, DOT, drained alien energy, disabled structure functions, cleared infestation quickly, hard counters to lerk and enzyme sprays. And to top it off no skill was required
A lot of these problems are still around but the fact that you can't get direct kills as easily anymore certainly helps make it more of a support weapon instead of an all purpose weapon
Don't forget the flame blocking Alien vision and the FPS drop.
SewlekThe programmer previously known as SchimmelJoin Date: 2003-05-13Member: 16247Members, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Gold, Subnautica Developer
the problem with that is that the commander can go gorge. when there is a feature which REQUIRES you to have a gorge (like dropping a hive) most likely the alien commander will do that then (he/she anyway does it already), to make sure you have 1 more fade/lerk/skulk in the field (instead of a field player gorge). its not really a cost issue, more that fact that this player wont be able to fight as effective, increasing the cost will only cause the alien team to not have gorges at all (in 6v6). this is not really fixable by giving the alien commander even more powerful abilities, unless we give him medpacks or some energy catalyzer (and extremely reduce the default energy regen of life forms) to make having at all times a comm be vital. the drifter abilities are already quite powerful, but probably not strong enough to make such a meaningful difference. the only true solution would be to not give the commander any p.res, and he cant earn any p.res outside of the hive. this probably would cause to have one of the 5 field players to go gorge, but that takes something away from the alien comm play, it could get quite boring if you cant do anything else (even marine comm ejects from time to time to build stuff).
there is not really an easy solution to this problem. you dont want to force teams to have a field player gorge, or mines/welders/<insert SG alternative>. it should be just a nice advantage to have a good unit composition (rather than 4-5 fades or all SGs), and monotone composition should suffer from a serious disadvantage. right now, multiple fades mean you kill structures way slower, but that is completely negated when you have 5 on the field (5 fades kill an extractor fast enough) which slaughter all marines with ease. the marines on the other hand dont even have a meaningful alternative to the shotgun. the SGs disadvante is range, but since most alien abilities are close range, that wont matter so much. GL and FT both mean a serious loss of 1v1 combat capabilities, which means having players without SG is a loss in flexibility. it was tried to also reduce the structure damage of the shotgun, but this was causing such a stale gameplay (both fades and shotgun deal low damage against structure) and situations where you basically won already dominance over a tech point caused very long spawn camping times.
there are other problems, like early fades (on one hive) are just way too strong. you can survive just fine 7-9 minutes (use just 1 lerk?), and once fades are out, no matter what, the game turns. the only real solution i see here to fix the "tech explosion problem" is: when marines purchase early on the <insert early game alternative to shotgun>, aliens would be forced to spend more res on gorges and lerks to stay in the game (this goes both sides). if you spend too much res on that early game weapons / tech, you will not be able to purchase later game advantages (this is probably the shotgun?). that can be shifted around of course (shotgun being the early advantage and <shotgun alternative> being the later game advantage). So, aliens wont have much of a chance with early fades, unless they build a 2nd hive fast enough, which means they need gorges and lerks to protect their territory (in case marines go for their early tech advantage). the game atm doesnt provide enough features to make that possible though, which i want to change with the upcoming content update.
the 2nd problem is that GL, FT, Gorge, Lerk dont give enough strategical advantage. granted, umbra and gorge heal (especially early game) can decide engagements, but the GL wont contribute much, and the FT, well its only required when umbra is in play. those specialized abilities need tweaking, to make "unit composition" matter more than currently, but without making monotone compositions completely obsolete (like mass lerk could be used as a HARD counter to mass FT?, thats just an example).
JektJoin Date: 2012-02-05Member: 143714Members, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow
edited July 2013
Nice write up. Appreciate that. Glad you recognize fade/SG explosions, team compositions and counters are a problem.
You would see less explosions if it wasn't optimal, and if there is a more efficient composition to go for that requires splitting pres and tech timings. Interested to see what you come up with.
It must depend on the server, as It's not often I'm in games were players aren't willing to go gorge - theres normally a few who are happy to do it, including myself. I like to mix it up, I'll go fade for a couple of rounds then perma gorge the next. I can understand why some people don't like the idea of going gorge though, they see it as a behind the scene helper class, not the fun "offense" killing type - even though a good gorge can be on the frontline, getting kills and holding an area.
Rather than trying to find ways of "forcing" players to gorge, I'd rather they genuinely wanted to go gorge.
-Webs, seriously why are they not in the game yet.
-allow a few more clogs for each gorge. I'd say +5, Cant see it being OP and little gorge forts are simply fun
-let gorge heal spray speed up gestation speed, so if a player is turning into a fade near by he can use his heal spray to speed up the process, in the same way commander can use mist.
-I'm not sure on hydras. Against any competant marine they're not of much use. I wouldnt suggest a buff - so maybe reduce there cost to 2 res instead of 3?
-Return gorge cost to 10 res, would be fine taking these changes into account. (upgrades would still cost as they do now)
Comments
Okay 13 is too high, but 11.5-12 isn't to bad.
I also patched up "skulk butt-jumping".
Something along the lines of 4th Biomass, better 3rd Hive abilities, better Crag trait scaling on higher lifeforms, increase Crag heal rate, Onos buff and 1 CC nerf.
Also, is the new cysting system changed in any way from the mechanics of 250, other than the visuals? Yesterday I had a match where I was unable to cyst into The Neck on Veil from both C12 and Pipeline. The cysts were showing green but no connection was drawn to other cysts in the proximity. Might have been a usual pathing bug of the old system, though. But it was frustrating as well because it prevented me from using Whips to fight off the Sentries that marines were placing there. (We had a lot of greenies on the server, so nobody would go Gorge and know how to take care of the problem.)
My post from ~7 pages back. I think this is a good place to start.
In addition, I would suggest increasing the unupgraded Onos armor by 50-100. The current 450 seems a little low.
The only really big issue I have with marine balance is the GL. For an anti-structure weapon, it still fairs really good in self-defense, now that projectiles are easier to aim. And if a friend is in a fight, or you expect some aliens to come down a corridor all you have to do is spam the hallway, and you deal a massive amount of damage for what is, at best, just spamming (and at worst, missing).
The worst part is, any obvious fix to those problems would just make the weapon less fun. Its just a really weird weapon that Marines honestly dont even need. Yes its good at dealing lots of structure damage, but at the cost of facilitating long turtley stalemates for the marines. Arcs, FTs and minigun exos fill the same role without that negative effect on gameplay.
A rework of the weapon might be fun. keep the damage but make it a one shot, explode on surface kind of weapon? Something to provide an alternative to the shotgun, that can deal good long ranged damage to buildings, but doesnt fill up a hallway with damage for several seconds.
Likewise should the direct hit with the GL do more damage then if you charged it long enough but not explode on impact if the charging was too short. That way you reward Shotgun-like aiming skill where single precise hits at the right time give a better result than just hit'n'hope.
Aside from that, the game has taken some big strides forward but there are still some things I would REALLY like to see addressed, personally.
- Sentry batteries are completely unnecessary, they make already weak sentries even more vulnerable to bilebomb (having to stack them all in one place) and do nothing that power node limitations and/or suppy cap couldn't take care of better.
- Onos endgame viability, this has been brought up both here and in seperate threads so I will leave it at that.
- Alien endgame (3rd/4th hive) power needs some bigger punch. Allow aliens to scale biomass past third hive, make the alien third hive abilities more potent or give aliens a better way to end turtles at the third hive in general. (Without requiring high amounts of coordination, amounts that are troublesome to come by in pubs)
- Biomass upgrade choice, please bring back some control over which upgrades to pick when and affect timing. This was one of my favorite features in the earlier builds and actually made for some very interesting strategic choices... Also, being able to get leap on just one hive was a great way for aliens to stay in the game even if they didn't have the best start. As it stands, aliens are just as shafted on one hive currently as they were before 250. Alien commander is also pretty stale in general, with very little diversity in play between games. If early leap is a problem, why not consider having upgrades scale based on hives just as well.
- Upgrades on chambers. I honestly don't understand this change, all this does is further confuse new players comming as to where they can find what upgrade. We already have biomass and hives as essentially a pre-req tech, surely the extra 10 t.res needed for some chamber isn't going to make any notable difference in timing? (Since I'm guessing that is why this change was made) It just feels incredibly pointless and downright annoying to have to find the correct chamber just to get to the right upgrade. You may as well just increase biomass or the upgrade cost by 5 - 10 for a similar result in tech timing.
- Lifeform explosions, yea I know we've been over this many times now but we still have to find a way to deal with those.
- Marine 2nd CC. It should be either significant or not there at all, imo it would be better if A/W3 was tied to the 2nd CC as well as currently, if you don't go down the exo path, you don't need a second CC at all.
- Early game. It was amazing when extractors were 15 t.res and the early game in particular lasted a good 5 or so minutes longer as a result. Please consider bringing this back, it is by far the most enjoyable aspect of the game and a longer early game may in fact also entice less players to save for higher upgrades (as they are further down the road), which means you may see more gorges and lerks and early marine weaponry.
- Marine weapon recycling, perhaps have a limit to the amount of recycling they can receive (Sort of durability)? That way, particularly in turtles you would no longer see infinite weapon recycling at least... Alternatively you could just consider reducing the time weapons remain on the ground.
I know its a big list, though most of them are fairly straight forward to address at least :P.
that wont make it into the real game. if we add a new weapon, it will come with a suitable model and sounds
Maybe instead of bulking up the old LMG, we need to further punify the default rifle, muahaha...
But as much as I tried to regard it with an open mind, playing with the lmg confirmed my hypothesis that its just a boring weapon to have on the field. Wouldn't you rather have players picking up different guns with varied and specialized playstyles as the game goes on? The lmg feels like a res suck that just offers you some passive upgrades for the normal smg. I don't know what its like being on the receiving end of it, but to actually spend res on it didn't feel like a waste, at least. However, if I'm gonna spend res on a weapon, I'd prefer it to give new gameplay experiences.
This would enforce a "static defenses are ONLY placeable with personal resources, and by persons who are "ground forces" (i.e non commanders) Only" Rule towards static defense? And see how it works out?
not exactly fond of commanders ruling half the static defenses mob and marines/gorges the other half.
Can anyone think of any reasons why this would be imbalanced? The only thing I see is power surge will be available even if the room with your turret factor loses power.
Good point. I guess I'm biased in my suggestion since I won't build my turret factory far away. I always place it so the arcs are in position within 5 seconds or I just don't siege
Would not really work with Whips, given the aspect that the Khammander is supposed to have control over them to move them around as needed. In some aspects are they the alien-pendant to ARCs with their Bombard ability. Gorges already have Hydras as player-deployed defensive structures.
I’m thinking it could reduce the prevalence of life form / equipment explosions.
Just as a rough idea.
Marines:
LMG – stock weapon, left about the same as it is.
Shotgun – rate of fire decreased, damage bumped up slightly
Grenade Launcher – damage type changed to structural, while rate of fire halved such that it does about the same amount of damage to structures as it does now, but significantly less effective vs units.
Flame Thrower – damage changed to do more damage to alien energy, but less to health. Give it about the same effectiveness vs structures.
Jet pack – change ground walking speed to half (you have a giant piece of metal strapped to your back afterall), air speed left unchanged.
Exos – this is sort of balanced already, but I think either the armor or the damage should come down more, along with a cost decrease.
Aliens:
Skulk – left alone
Lerk – left alone – possibly a little less armor with a corresponding cost decrease
Gorge – probably in a good place, though maybe increase the cost of his turret but also the damage it can do. And – if you could give him more of a support roll, add an option to make miniature versions of the big 3 alien defensive structures (crag, shift, shade). If that’s done, bile bomb should probably be weakened.
Fade – increase damage to infantry, half armor, half price – makes him a true assassin, but now is easier to kill, but also easier to buy back.
Onos – reduce base damage but change all damage types to structural, increase armor, reduce cost. He becomes more of a bunker buster / meat shield for the weaker units. Change stomp to do damage to structures. Lower his cost such that he’s worth getting in his weaker form.
General change:
Res towers cheaper and also a bit weaker. –since all units / equipment would be cheaper, you can afford res towers dying more often.
And if all that works, then also possibly a rework on how commanders work, giving them a bit more "abilities" to interact with other players.
Oh, and I was thinking with all those changes, that cost reductions should be taken as well to encourage varieties of use.
its actually easier than that, just two changes:
Most pub servers dont have anyone picking up FTs. Mainly just shotguns and GLs. Unless UWE has some statistics that say differently.
A lot of these problems are still around but the fact that you can't get direct kills as easily anymore certainly helps make it more of a support weapon instead of an all purpose weapon
Don't forget the flame blocking Alien vision and the FPS drop.
there is not really an easy solution to this problem. you dont want to force teams to have a field player gorge, or mines/welders/<insert SG alternative>. it should be just a nice advantage to have a good unit composition (rather than 4-5 fades or all SGs), and monotone composition should suffer from a serious disadvantage. right now, multiple fades mean you kill structures way slower, but that is completely negated when you have 5 on the field (5 fades kill an extractor fast enough) which slaughter all marines with ease. the marines on the other hand dont even have a meaningful alternative to the shotgun. the SGs disadvante is range, but since most alien abilities are close range, that wont matter so much. GL and FT both mean a serious loss of 1v1 combat capabilities, which means having players without SG is a loss in flexibility. it was tried to also reduce the structure damage of the shotgun, but this was causing such a stale gameplay (both fades and shotgun deal low damage against structure) and situations where you basically won already dominance over a tech point caused very long spawn camping times.
there are other problems, like early fades (on one hive) are just way too strong. you can survive just fine 7-9 minutes (use just 1 lerk?), and once fades are out, no matter what, the game turns. the only real solution i see here to fix the "tech explosion problem" is: when marines purchase early on the <insert early game alternative to shotgun>, aliens would be forced to spend more res on gorges and lerks to stay in the game (this goes both sides). if you spend too much res on that early game weapons / tech, you will not be able to purchase later game advantages (this is probably the shotgun?). that can be shifted around of course (shotgun being the early advantage and <shotgun alternative> being the later game advantage). So, aliens wont have much of a chance with early fades, unless they build a 2nd hive fast enough, which means they need gorges and lerks to protect their territory (in case marines go for their early tech advantage). the game atm doesnt provide enough features to make that possible though, which i want to change with the upcoming content update.
the 2nd problem is that GL, FT, Gorge, Lerk dont give enough strategical advantage. granted, umbra and gorge heal (especially early game) can decide engagements, but the GL wont contribute much, and the FT, well its only required when umbra is in play. those specialized abilities need tweaking, to make "unit composition" matter more than currently, but without making monotone compositions completely obsolete (like mass lerk could be used as a HARD counter to mass FT?, thats just an example).
You would see less explosions if it wasn't optimal, and if there is a more efficient composition to go for that requires splitting pres and tech timings. Interested to see what you come up with.
Rather than trying to find ways of "forcing" players to gorge, I'd rather they genuinely wanted to go gorge.
-Webs, seriously why are they not in the game yet.
-allow a few more clogs for each gorge. I'd say +5, Cant see it being OP and little gorge forts are simply fun
-let gorge heal spray speed up gestation speed, so if a player is turning into a fade near by he can use his heal spray to speed up the process, in the same way commander can use mist.
-I'm not sure on hydras. Against any competant marine they're not of much use. I wouldnt suggest a buff - so maybe reduce there cost to 2 res instead of 3?
-Return gorge cost to 10 res, would be fine taking these changes into account. (upgrades would still cost as they do now)