I never recalled aliens ever having an issue tracking humans in NS1 where they also had "human" vision. The reason it's harder now is due to the odd marine jump mechanic that's been implemented (but that's a separate matter for another thread).
I don't think so. The graphic of NS1 was simply not this full of detail. Your memory may draw you a wrong picture. But NS1 wasn't that detailed. And therefore it was easier to track marines:
Maybe there really are so many alien only players here that they got so used to alien vision, they cant play without it. Marines had to deal with the vision obstructions since release and they were flaming just as much as you do now. If anything, new alien vision is just fair.
Apparently just 6 alien only players.
That's one of the weakest arguments you can make in this case. Natural Selection prides itself with the asymmetrical nature of the teams, so the argument of "Marines have to deal with this too" hardly holds any weight.
One of the biggest points about NS has always been that the Kharaa are NOT Marines, they are NOT human, they do not abide to "normal human rules". They are predators that evolve further and further to get better at their task, that task being "to survive no matter what". It wouldn't be that far stretched to assume that because of this, Kharaa have evolved far superior senses, compared to TSA Marines, which seem to be their main enemies.
Marines have to compensate this with their technology, that's what flashlights are for and night-vision goggles could be for, of course they will still be at an disadvantage because using external technology can never compare to having the actual senses.
Imho the new AV does not deliver the feeling of "having an advantage" at all. One of the problems being that the times where you are in "full darkness" are few in-between an they are short. But the new AV is only really useful in complete darkness. But in those situations you might as well leave it off and just look for Marines flashlights, due to all the darkness and the Marines sticking out, you gonna end up with less visual clutter compared to using AV.
Personally i would rather see the trade-off in some other way. Kharaa should always be able to see well, regardless of lighting conditions, in that scenario AV could give Kharaa another advantage.
How about we turn AV into something like a "scent mode"? You turn it on and you can see the trails of Marines that passed 10-30 seconds before, but you won't be able to actually see them when in scent mode, you only see their trails.
Imho it fits well into the overall theme, it's also a pretty unique mechanic, haven't seen too many games with something like that, sure it's probably gonna impact balance (especially on the competitive level) but i still think it could be a great addition to the game.
If anything, the differences between aliens and marines have become less in NS2 compared to NS1. But suddenly, the aliens need a vision advantage over the marines? Why? The marines have as much trouble tracking aliens blinking around them as the aliens have with tracking the marines. I for one have always felt old alien vision to look really cool but i thought it is kind of op. For example the lerk gas/umbra is powerful enough even if it blocks vision for both parties. Less vision = melee advantage.
Alien vision is just another common occurance of people getting accustomed to exploiting a bugged/op feature to get their "fun" and winnings. Once it gets fixed the emo shitstorm begins. The same happend when UWE fixed the bugged skulk animations (when simply running up a wall was enough to dodge most bullets).
NS1 had graphics from 98, there were no blur, no atmospheric effects, no complex lightning effects, less reliefs and he geometry of the rooms were very basics. You simply can't compare, to track Marines your brain does lot more works in NS2 than in his older brother because there is a lot more "parasite" details to filter.
@iClearskies: I have tried option 1 and found the colours didn't really work well. The main problem, though, is that it doesn't remove textures, which means it's still rather cluttered. Option 2 is out of date (unfortunately), and option 3 is about the best out there currently, but alas your entire argument falls down when you play competitive games, where alien vision mods are NOT allowed in NSL rules. It's therefore very unwise to practise with alien vision mods, so I'm having to suck up the constant headaches caused by the godawful current alien sight.
Alien vision mods are not the answer. We need a vanilla option to allow for both a) un-highlighted totally normal vision like marines have AND b) old alien vision (with texture-decluttering and not bloody white on orange), in addition to the current options, so that no-one can't use what they want to use.
I don't try to stop you using what you want to use. What gives you the right to act otherwise...?
There are ways around NSL checks and balances. Some users use them but a majority don't. Just saying.
@iClearSkies So if we are not agreed with a change in the game we just have the right to install mods and stfu ? I've tested all the mod you submit since the patch: GLISS does not work, Alien Vision Reloaded takes the same color scheme of the old AV but is still confused in big fights and painful for the eyes; finally Minimal Alien vision does the job but is not as effective as the old AV was when you need to navigate fast as Lerk or Fade.
The thread goes in circle but UWE must do something, not necessarily get the old AV back but find an alternative. By the way I don't remember a single explanation about this change, if they can tell us why they did this it will push this subject a little further.
I find this un-true because i use Lurk all the time, it just takes some time to get accustomed to same with the fade. As for the issue with mods Im a very DIY person, if i dont like how something is done I mod it myself, NS2 was build around the idea of modding and I uphold to that very dearly even in NSL to which I find at times unprofessional due to removing a core feature of modding. I understand that some mods are outrageous and remove textures on the maps and such but at the same time they tell you which specific files are being consistency checked which can be easily changed or modded in a way with a TINY reference code to load a texture/mod/code from another file on your computer. "HEY but wait iClearSkies what about the recordings?!?", Easy Ive already tested a mod that ive been working on with a few individuals that records the render video as a normal video with standard textures but to the player all their mods are running along with ENSL and other checking programs, they only way to DEFEAT this is to re-enable screenshot at times during the matches and keep the files or have the mod run similar tactics like an old NS1 mod that allowed admins to Execute console commands on specific players clients. the best and accurate way is to do that and make the screenshot folder shared so that all admins of NSL can see whos doing what and its a simple code to have the name of the JPEG as the steamid : Time/Date : Mapname : Server.
JektJoin Date: 2012-02-05Member: 143714Members, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow
Minimal alien vision doesn't have an off option.
Twilights reloaded one does weird shit to the gamma when its off and makes everything really gray and flat for some reason, instead of just being off.
Gliss' hasn't been updated for the new .hlsl format.
@iClearSkies I agree that NSL should adopt a random screenshot approach like in NS1. This would also remove the ridiculous need to screw over our machines already limited performance by recording demos (which as you point out may not be foolproof anyway).
However, I absolutely cannot condone what you've described as a way to get around the current safeguards against cheating at competitive level. I'm sure you don't condone that, either...
It doesn't, however, get around the point of this thread, which is that the current implementation of normal and F-on alien sight is downright awful. I and others have proposed suitable alternatives. UWE has remained completely silent on the topic, presumably hoping it will go away. It won't.
The point is, the new alien vision is on by default, pressing F just switches you to night vision mode. If you try night vision in bright daylight your eyes get hurt.
1. UWE response (say something)
2. Anyone who has blamed a death as a marine on a skulks AV claiming "the only reason he killed me is because AV is OP and not because i missed 42 shots"
The old AV was not OP as it raised the skill floor not the skill ceiling. Things like Fade/rine straff jump, raise the skill ceiling and become OP. AV Allows beginner players to play better, and skilled players to play comfortably.
The point is, the new alien vision is on by default, pressing F just switches you to night vision mode. If you try night vision in bright daylight your eyes get hurt.
The old AV highlighted marines, the new alien vision only outlines them. That makes a huge difference for tracking purposes.
So how is tracking marines harder than tracking aliens and why do you need to blend out all textures to track marines?
Distance.
As a marine you're always trying to keep distance between yourself and the skulk, and the more distance between yourself and an object the easier it is to track its movement. All it takes is a couple of feet and a skulk is easy to follow no matter how erratic it tries to move (and such movements slow it down to).
For a skulk its the complete opposite - you're always trying to be as close as possible to the marine to deal damage. At such close range when youre at a marines feet, even a small strafe/jump from the marine can instantly remove them from the skulks field of view, making tracking a much trickier task to do as a skulk compared to marine.
In saying that I'm ok with the current default alien vision, I'm just explaining why aliens can have a tough time tracking good marines.
@Reeke, no you just explained that marines have a ranged advantage. Once the aliens get close, the marines have to do just as much tracking as the aliens do. It seems to me that you are not happy with strafejumping marines, am I right?
@Blarney_Stone, the huge difference was that old AV was blending out all the textures and let you focus only on the relevant Objects in the game. For example mines were way too easy to spot imho.
I know, it is easy for me to talk because I did not become dependent on the old AV in the first place. I just didn't like it even though I saw the advantage it gave. I preferred seeing the cool graphics (and still do).
@mad_max_, your comment about the raised skill ceiling is interesting. Maybe a factor why bad aliens have (had) the advantage over bad marines? Reintroduce Motion Tracking + Old AV anyone?
@bERt0r I'm not sure if you misunderstood,I would argue that AV raises the skill floor and does not affect the skill ceiling. Further I would argue that for a mechanic to be "OP" the skill ceiling would need to be raised.
With the removal of AV UWE has lowered the skill floor of aliens, such that skilled players are annoyed, and low level players are handicapped.
This is contrasted with mechanics like strafe jump. Which I argue raised the skill ceiling of marines. This new skill ceiling opens the door (IMO wide open) to being an OP mechanic.
So by my interpretation of UWE changes.
1a. playing aliens as a beginner was to easy.
2a. skilled marines had a hard time killing.
My contention
1a. Every one has played a FPS who has played a FP(Biter), so a higher skill floor seems reasonable.
2a. A skilled marine (aim/positioning/awareness/strat) has always done well and been feared a (nothing scarier then a SG who doesn't miss)
Alternative reasoning
1b. An attempt to balance win/loss with engagement balance.
Disagreement
1b. Changing combat balance should be because combat is unbalanced not because the win/loss ratio is unbalanced. If rines need to win 80% of engagements to win the round removes enjoyment from aliens who now are expected to lose 80% of the engagements.
Solution
1b. Balance combat to 50% and win lose to 50%. If combat is balanced, then change other aspects of the game to balance win/lose (tweek hp of structures, build times, etc)
im inclined to believe that there hasn't been a response out of uwe on AV because they don't have a coherent position on AV. they can't agree on if it needed to be changed, so they can't tell us why they changed it. I know, for me personally, due to a host of factors, including AV I haven't touched the game in a couple weeks except for pugs, which haven't been that enjoyable... maybe im just getting bored, but I don't think so.
@maD_maX_ that was exactly what i was talking about, skill floor for aliens being higher than for marines -> bad aliens better than bad marines -> new player outcry about balance.
The problem with your solution is that if the aliens win 50% of engagements, the marines dont stand a chance. Marine strategy is to fight together in focal points with superior firepower while alien strategy is to outmanouver, surround, flank the marines and win a war of attrition. Aliens want a lot of small engagements. Marines want few decisive battles.
Alien vision is just another common occurance of people getting accustomed to exploiting a bugged/op feature to get their "fun" and winnings. Once it gets fixed the emo shitstorm begins. The same happend when UWE fixed the bugged skulk animations (when simply running up a wall was enough to dodge most bullets).
I have to disagree.
There wouldn't be nearly as much complaining if they had kept the old color scheme, and NOT added the outline when AV is off. Just adding a glare in lit rooms would've been enough to discourage people from using it in lit areas.
As someone who ONLY used AV in dark areas to begin with, I am positive that most of the eye discomfort complaints are coming from the harsh reddish orange on super bright white color scheme, and NOT the fact that it can't be used in bright areas.
It's sad to see so many "defenders" of the change saying that all the whining is just because it's not "OP" anymore.
In close combat aliens shouldnt have bigger problem to solo rine. Now its kind pain in the ass to kill any marine with those random strafe jumps. Its pathetic view while no cele, no leap skulk is trying to bite jumpo-pogo-flying-super-crazy rine ...
Haven't had a chance to load up 256/257 but I didn't see anything in the change logs. Is this fixed yet? Still waiting for a UWE response on the horribly broken alien visuals. ..
Nope, alien vision has not been changed. Hopefully there will be a balance patch in the coming weeks that fixes alien vision and also addresses some other balance issues (like khammander being crap)
I never recalled aliens ever having an issue tracking humans in NS1 where they also had "human" vision. The reason it's harder now is due to the odd marine jump mechanic that's been implemented (but that's a separate matter for another thread).
However, you're talking about trade-offs. Well, that seems odd because there was NO disadvantage to old AV and people laughed at you for not using it. It's like the old Marine motion tracking that had infinite range. Why not use it? Well... because it was a crutch. It cost a lot of res early game that could have been used for other buildings/research. Better players didn't need it and could detect skulks using their game-sense/experience/hearing. That's what I see this as.
Yes, alien POV (normal and "f" vision) should be made better. The orange hurts peoples eyes so that should be changed to maybe blue or something to accommodate that. Normal AV should probably be fixed to be more accurate (probably a very light orange tinge on enemy units). I've seen skulks hold the bite button eating air because their mouse movement is slow, getting lost in architecture. I've also had an expert skulks rip 3 marines to pieces because he could track like crazy, jumping did nothing to stop him.
Does anyone know how the competitive scene is going, btw? Are the professional aliens players losing games 7:3? What's their opinion on the matter?
Many others have already pointed out that NS1 also had a lot less visual clutter, tracking anything had been way easier in NS1, for both sides. Also people might have forgotten: But even NS1 had "alien vision", sure it didn't change much but it really helped finding Marines in the dark without blasting you with eye-cancer or giving you a giant disadvantage.
And MT is anything but a crutch, MT had been a very nice hard counter to silence and to a certain degree to cloaking (Kharaa show up when not cloaked, so by having MT you basically forced the whole Kharaa team to either creep around slowly cloaked or move fast and get spotted).
No amount of "game sense" can make you hear silenced Skulks and as somebody who's been playing "by sound" for nearly 2 decades, it's often the good silence Skulks that mess you up real good because the lack of sound even messes up tracking/aiming to a certain degree.
But what has that story about "Skulks holding down the bite button" to do with this whole topic?
I've also killed 5 Marines, since the vision change, nobody claimed that playing Kharaa is now "impossible" but anecdotal evidence like that doesn't really help much.
To me the biggest problem, apart from eye-cancer color palate, is the simple fact that complete dark rooms are an rare occurrence, because rooms stay dark only for a short amount of time. So the actual use for "total darkness vision" is already very limited and situational.
But that feels way to disconnected to the overall feel that Kharaa always had and always delivered. Kharaa are the ambushers, as such they should have (and always had) a visual advantage. Kharaa shouldn't have a problem making out enemies, no matter how much visual clutter there is.
For the Marines it should be the complete opposite, they should have trouble making out enemies in dark and crowded places. Maybe too many people have forgotten this with their nilly willy "pro gaming" approach of just strafe/walljumping at max speed into Marine groups, but Kharaa and Skulks especially are supposed to hide, sneak and ambush. You can't do that too well without an visual advantage.
hi am i too late to complain about this? i tried scrimming ns2 for the first time in a while the other day and alien was really frustrating and this was one of the many reasons
as I understand it, the complaint was: alien vision was basically a requirement to have on, but looked awful. I completely understand that, as art and atmosphere seem to be priority in NS2. I have a few complaints, though - and it's not necessarily just with the alien vision, but just some basic core concepts of game design that the alien vision overlooks:
the first is that if the alien vision looks too ugly (which I agree it did), there are many shades going from boring green into BRIGHT WHITE ON A BRIGHT ORANGE BACKGROUND (my own vision mod being one example, and twiliteblue made countless of other incredible ones that did not sacrifice aesthetics).
secondly, my FPS dips a lot with the alien vision on - I don't think I need to explain why this is annoying.
finally, the devs have never been quite clear on where they want to be with alien vision is the problem. if it's supposed to be an aid, it should just be default and look freaking awesome (http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198011399345/myworkshopfiles/?appid=4920) without any forced drawbacks. if it's supposed to have "drawbacks", I personally find that quite silly to implement drawbacks into a really badass feature for the sake of it. not everything - especially not UI elements - need to have a positive and negative feature about them. alien vision is an afterthought, so any balancing features that are added to it are basically just forced and don't take other gameplay features into account.
officially I believe the statement from the devs is that it was supposed to be a feature that would have limited use, drawbacks, etc. but it never had time to be fully developed the way it was intended. but it has never been made clear to me what the purpose of it is, in its ideal form. I would love some clarification on this. using vision obscuration as a balancing mechanic is absurd and a relic that needs to go - I believe the best solution would be to simply implement an awesome alien vision as default, and have the current "normal" vision be an option as well. more options rule. customization rules.
I'm thinking most posters in this thread have been conditioned to mash F as soon as they spawn and are now caremad it doesn't bring expected results in the form of high-contrast cheatmode graphics.
Try playing the game without alien vision and you'll see it's easy enough to track marines without it AND you can ambush them easier, because then you are able to see flashlight halos sweeping the room long before your prey comes in. I'm thinking the mode just needs to be removed completely, with some sort of nightvision autotoggle.
I'm thinking most posters in this thread have been conditioned to mash F as soon as they spawn and are now caremad it doesn't bring expected results in the form of high-contrast cheatmode graphics.
Try playing the game without alien vision and you'll see it's easy enough to track marines without it AND you can ambush them easier, because then you are able to see flashlight halos sweeping the room long before your prey comes in. I'm thinking the mode just needs to be removed completely, with some sort of nightvision autotoggle.
Jesus Wept. Reading comprehension fail at its best. The normal alien sight is what most of us are complaining about, not just the dark-mode f-on AV, which incidentally is essentially never used. Also, the flashlight arc was still visible in old AV anyway.
I haven't tried it yet but can understand people are upset, but why not just mod your alien vision? I actually couldn't use the default original because it gave me a headache
Because alien vision mods are blocked in competitive matches. Also, the old one was perfectly fine for me.
They're now blocked in competitive.. before you 'could' use them 8)
funny you used someone elses AV and tweaked it.. cause I was using yours and trying to tweak it.. that greyscale was perfect, kind of want it back.. and by kind of I mean I want it back
Comments
NS1 had graphics from 98, there were no blur, no atmospheric effects, no complex lightning effects, less reliefs and he geometry of the rooms were very basics. You simply can't compare, to track Marines your brain does lot more works in NS2 than in his older brother because there is a lot more "parasite" details to filter.
There are ways around NSL checks and balances. Some users use them but a majority don't. Just saying.
I find this un-true because i use Lurk all the time, it just takes some time to get accustomed to same with the fade. As for the issue with mods Im a very DIY person, if i dont like how something is done I mod it myself, NS2 was build around the idea of modding and I uphold to that very dearly even in NSL to which I find at times unprofessional due to removing a core feature of modding. I understand that some mods are outrageous and remove textures on the maps and such but at the same time they tell you which specific files are being consistency checked which can be easily changed or modded in a way with a TINY reference code to load a texture/mod/code from another file on your computer. "HEY but wait iClearSkies what about the recordings?!?", Easy Ive already tested a mod that ive been working on with a few individuals that records the render video as a normal video with standard textures but to the player all their mods are running along with ENSL and other checking programs, they only way to DEFEAT this is to re-enable screenshot at times during the matches and keep the files or have the mod run similar tactics like an old NS1 mod that allowed admins to Execute console commands on specific players clients. the best and accurate way is to do that and make the screenshot folder shared so that all admins of NSL can see whos doing what and its a simple code to have the name of the JPEG as the steamid : Time/Date : Mapname : Server.
Twilights reloaded one does weird shit to the gamma when its off and makes everything really gray and flat for some reason, instead of just being off.
Gliss' hasn't been updated for the new .hlsl format.
However, I absolutely cannot condone what you've described as a way to get around the current safeguards against cheating at competitive level. I'm sure you don't condone that, either...
It doesn't, however, get around the point of this thread, which is that the current implementation of normal and F-on alien sight is downright awful. I and others have proposed suitable alternatives. UWE has remained completely silent on the topic, presumably hoping it will go away. It won't.
1. UWE response (say something)
2. Anyone who has blamed a death as a marine on a skulks AV claiming "the only reason he killed me is because AV is OP and not because i missed 42 shots"
The old AV was not OP as it raised the skill floor not the skill ceiling. Things like Fade/rine straff jump, raise the skill ceiling and become OP. AV Allows beginner players to play better, and skilled players to play comfortably.
The old AV highlighted marines, the new alien vision only outlines them. That makes a huge difference for tracking purposes.
Distance.
As a marine you're always trying to keep distance between yourself and the skulk, and the more distance between yourself and an object the easier it is to track its movement. All it takes is a couple of feet and a skulk is easy to follow no matter how erratic it tries to move (and such movements slow it down to).
For a skulk its the complete opposite - you're always trying to be as close as possible to the marine to deal damage. At such close range when youre at a marines feet, even a small strafe/jump from the marine can instantly remove them from the skulks field of view, making tracking a much trickier task to do as a skulk compared to marine.
In saying that I'm ok with the current default alien vision, I'm just explaining why aliens can have a tough time tracking good marines.
@Blarney_Stone, the huge difference was that old AV was blending out all the textures and let you focus only on the relevant Objects in the game. For example mines were way too easy to spot imho.
I know, it is easy for me to talk because I did not become dependent on the old AV in the first place. I just didn't like it even though I saw the advantage it gave. I preferred seeing the cool graphics (and still do).
@mad_max_, your comment about the raised skill ceiling is interesting. Maybe a factor why bad aliens have (had) the advantage over bad marines? Reintroduce Motion Tracking + Old AV anyone?
Even when the skulks gets close it's still easier to track as a marine because of their POV and the above factors I mentioned. To me anyway, at least.
With the removal of AV UWE has lowered the skill floor of aliens, such that skilled players are annoyed, and low level players are handicapped.
This is contrasted with mechanics like strafe jump. Which I argue raised the skill ceiling of marines. This new skill ceiling opens the door (IMO wide open) to being an OP mechanic.
So by my interpretation of UWE changes.
1a. playing aliens as a beginner was to easy.
2a. skilled marines had a hard time killing.
My contention
1a. Every one has played a FPS who has played a FP(Biter), so a higher skill floor seems reasonable.
2a. A skilled marine (aim/positioning/awareness/strat) has always done well and been feared a (nothing scarier then a SG who doesn't miss)
Alternative reasoning
1b. An attempt to balance win/loss with engagement balance.
Disagreement
1b. Changing combat balance should be because combat is unbalanced not because the win/loss ratio is unbalanced. If rines need to win 80% of engagements to win the round removes enjoyment from aliens who now are expected to lose 80% of the engagements.
Solution
1b. Balance combat to 50% and win lose to 50%. If combat is balanced, then change other aspects of the game to balance win/lose (tweek hp of structures, build times, etc)
The problem with your solution is that if the aliens win 50% of engagements, the marines dont stand a chance. Marine strategy is to fight together in focal points with superior firepower while alien strategy is to outmanouver, surround, flank the marines and win a war of attrition. Aliens want a lot of small engagements. Marines want few decisive battles.
I have to disagree.
There wouldn't be nearly as much complaining if they had kept the old color scheme, and NOT added the outline when AV is off. Just adding a glare in lit rooms would've been enough to discourage people from using it in lit areas.
As someone who ONLY used AV in dark areas to begin with, I am positive that most of the eye discomfort complaints are coming from the harsh reddish orange on super bright white color scheme, and NOT the fact that it can't be used in bright areas.
It's sad to see so many "defenders" of the change saying that all the whining is just because it's not "OP" anymore.
Many others have already pointed out that NS1 also had a lot less visual clutter, tracking anything had been way easier in NS1, for both sides. Also people might have forgotten: But even NS1 had "alien vision", sure it didn't change much but it really helped finding Marines in the dark without blasting you with eye-cancer or giving you a giant disadvantage.
And MT is anything but a crutch, MT had been a very nice hard counter to silence and to a certain degree to cloaking (Kharaa show up when not cloaked, so by having MT you basically forced the whole Kharaa team to either creep around slowly cloaked or move fast and get spotted).
No amount of "game sense" can make you hear silenced Skulks and as somebody who's been playing "by sound" for nearly 2 decades, it's often the good silence Skulks that mess you up real good because the lack of sound even messes up tracking/aiming to a certain degree.
But what has that story about "Skulks holding down the bite button" to do with this whole topic?
I've also killed 5 Marines, since the vision change, nobody claimed that playing Kharaa is now "impossible" but anecdotal evidence like that doesn't really help much.
To me the biggest problem, apart from eye-cancer color palate, is the simple fact that complete dark rooms are an rare occurrence, because rooms stay dark only for a short amount of time. So the actual use for "total darkness vision" is already very limited and situational.
But that feels way to disconnected to the overall feel that Kharaa always had and always delivered. Kharaa are the ambushers, as such they should have (and always had) a visual advantage. Kharaa shouldn't have a problem making out enemies, no matter how much visual clutter there is.
For the Marines it should be the complete opposite, they should have trouble making out enemies in dark and crowded places. Maybe too many people have forgotten this with their nilly willy "pro gaming" approach of just strafe/walljumping at max speed into Marine groups, but Kharaa and Skulks especially are supposed to hide, sneak and ambush. You can't do that too well without an visual advantage.
@rebirth Please stop using that cancer expression. It is really annoying and disrespectful.
I get annoying, but disrespectful it isn't
as I understand it, the complaint was: alien vision was basically a requirement to have on, but looked awful. I completely understand that, as art and atmosphere seem to be priority in NS2. I have a few complaints, though - and it's not necessarily just with the alien vision, but just some basic core concepts of game design that the alien vision overlooks:
the first is that if the alien vision looks too ugly (which I agree it did), there are many shades going from boring green into BRIGHT WHITE ON A BRIGHT ORANGE BACKGROUND (my own vision mod being one example, and twiliteblue made countless of other incredible ones that did not sacrifice aesthetics).
secondly, my FPS dips a lot with the alien vision on - I don't think I need to explain why this is annoying.
finally, the devs have never been quite clear on where they want to be with alien vision is the problem. if it's supposed to be an aid, it should just be default and look freaking awesome (http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198011399345/myworkshopfiles/?appid=4920) without any forced drawbacks. if it's supposed to have "drawbacks", I personally find that quite silly to implement drawbacks into a really badass feature for the sake of it. not everything - especially not UI elements - need to have a positive and negative feature about them. alien vision is an afterthought, so any balancing features that are added to it are basically just forced and don't take other gameplay features into account.
officially I believe the statement from the devs is that it was supposed to be a feature that would have limited use, drawbacks, etc. but it never had time to be fully developed the way it was intended. but it has never been made clear to me what the purpose of it is, in its ideal form. I would love some clarification on this. using vision obscuration as a balancing mechanic is absurd and a relic that needs to go - I believe the best solution would be to simply implement an awesome alien vision as default, and have the current "normal" vision be an option as well. more options rule. customization rules.
this doesnt rule
vote me 4 prez
Try playing the game without alien vision and you'll see it's easy enough to track marines without it AND you can ambush them easier, because then you are able to see flashlight halos sweeping the room long before your prey comes in. I'm thinking the mode just needs to be removed completely, with some sort of nightvision autotoggle.
Jesus Wept. Reading comprehension fail at its best. The normal alien sight is what most of us are complaining about, not just the dark-mode f-on AV, which incidentally is essentially never used. Also, the flashlight arc was still visible in old AV anyway.
They're now blocked in competitive.. before you 'could' use them 8)
funny you used someone elses AV and tweaked it.. cause I was using yours and trying to tweak it.. that greyscale was perfect, kind of want it back.. and by kind of I mean I want it back
p.s - lets duel again 8)
This alien sight bug still hasn't been fixed. Come on uwe this is basically a game breaker...