@_INTER_ "But what if a player is not Afk but walks back onto the IP and goes Afk?" - Afaik, it makes no difference. They made a "pushing" mechanism to remove the player on the IP. It doesn't care how you ended up on the IP in the first place.
If a skulk attacks the IP and you get pushed gently from it instead of jumping away full speed yourself...doesn't that makes IP grinding easier now? Just saying...
edit: PG lines with arrows but without animation is indeed a blessing for the eyes.
@_INTER_ "But what if a player is not Afk but walks back onto the IP and goes Afk?" - Afaik, it makes no difference. They made a "pushing" mechanism to remove the player on the IP. It doesn't care how you ended up on the IP in the first place.
Agreed. Now, let's see if we can figure out how to use this "force-push", if you will, to boost jump marines out of spawn, out of the map, etc. Also I'm sure it will be of some use in the battle against the dark side....
@_INTER_ "But what if a player is not Afk but walks back onto the IP and goes Afk?" - Afaik, it makes no difference. They made a "pushing" mechanism to remove the player on the IP. It doesn't care how you ended up on the IP in the first place.
Agreed. Now, let's see if we can figure out how to use this "force-push", if you will, to boost jump marines out of spawn, out of the map, etc. Also I'm sure it will be of some use in the battle against the dark side....
I haven´t seen it yet but I always imagine the marine been catapulted into the wall. Cracks up a smile everytime.
THANKS FOR THE HARD WORK!
Agreed. Now, let's see if we can figure out how to use this "force-push", if you will, to boost jump marines out of spawn, out of the map, etc. Also I'm sure it will be of some use in the battle against the dark side....
I haven´t seen it yet but I always imagine the marine been catapulted into the wall. Cracks up a smile everytime.
THANKS FOR THE HARD WORK!
[/quote]
No Marines were harmed in the making of this fix... at least that is the official statement
Wow, that was fast! I expected this update to be in the works for a longer time.
We're already moving into the planning stage for 267 ...BUT, 267 will take longer than 266 did. Possibly much longer. Time will tell. Absolutely no ETA for 267. By design we are not trying to stick to hard-set release dates. This gives us more time to get it right. Nothing is ever perfect however, but we're making extra efforts to ensure there are not any major issues with each patch we release.
If a skulk attacks the IP and you get pushed gently from it instead of jumping away full speed yourself...doesn't that makes IP grinding easier now? Just saying...
The IP "push" (for Marine players) only occurs on when they are AFK during the respawn sequence. If you're moving your camera around, etc, it will not bump you off the IP.
Except for that time when we walled in the IPs with armories to see what would happen if they couldn't get pushed anywhere. Verdict: don't do that.
And clogged up IP's ? Thats to happen slightly more often in an acual game.
The only time I've seen clogged up IP is when we wondered "What will happen if we clog up IP?". 1700 hours here. The chances are so low, I wouldn't be mad if it made my Windows uninstall.
DC_DarklingJoin Date: 2003-07-10Member: 18068Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver
“tunnel_allowed” material, which allows tunnel placement outside of nav mesh. Usage: paint material onto a face and put that face in CollisionGeometry"
Omg.. this I missed in the patchnotes..but DC WANT.
Finally my gorgy can again hapilly spit out tunnels which should be legal to begin with.
For the people that don't like the arrows remember that you can choose between different options meanwhile in NS2+ (static line, static arrows, dashed line, animated arrows).
Is this your suttle way of pushing the community to complete ns2+ adoption?
Also, will gorges have to nerfed because they now hit at close range. I have seen some nasty war gorges out there even with this bug.
For the people that don't like the arrows remember that you can choose between different options meanwhile in NS2+ (static line, static arrows, dashed line, animated arrows).
Is this your suttle way of pushing the community to complete ns2+ adoption?
Also, will gorges have to nerfed because they now hit at close range. I have seen some nasty war gorges out there even with this bug.
It wasn't that subtle, was it? But that's a NS2+ thing, options!
For the people that don't like the arrows remember that you can choose between different options meanwhile in NS2+ (static line, static arrows, dashed line, animated arrows).
Is this your suttle way of pushing the community to complete ns2+ adoption?
Also, will gorges have to nerfed because they now hit at close range. I have seen some nasty war gorges out there even with this bug.
It wasn't that subtle, was it? But that's a NS2+ thing, options!
I think I was not clear enough what I was jesting at; it was not your comment right there but more that the options are not in ns2 therefore one must get ns2+ for the full experience.
Except for that time when we walled in the IPs with armories to see what would happen if they couldn't get pushed anywhere. Verdict: don't do that.
And clogged up IP's ? Thats to happen slightly more often in an acual game.
I can't remember if we tested that or not, but it should produce the same result. The system simply applies a physics force to nudge an idle player off the IP, but it doesn't do anything special. If something is in the way that prevents them from being nudged far enough they can stay on it and still create a problem. Anything more radical has a solid chance to create bigger problems, so we went with the simple solution that, while not covering every edge case, works in most "reasonable" scenarios.
TL;DR - it's better than nothing without being worse than nothing.
For the people that don't like the arrows remember that you can choose between different options meanwhile in NS2+ (static line, static arrows, dashed line, animated arrows).
Is this your suttle way of pushing the community to complete ns2+ adoption?
Also, will gorges have to nerfed because they now hit at close range. I have seen some nasty war gorges out there even with this bug.
It wasn't that subtle, was it? But that's a NS2+ thing, options!
I think I was not clear enough what I was jesting at; it was not your comment right there but more that the options are not in ns2 therefore one must get ns2+ for the full experience.
Congratulations on the release, and thankyou so much for creating it! community devs.
Also, a short while ago @Acedude was working on a much improved system for skill-balanced teams to replace 'Randomize Ready Room' and 'Force even teams', both of which are about as much help as testicles on a teacup. He was basing it off the work of a Google chap's proposal posted here.
Is this still happening? Have the community devs taking this over, or is Acedude still working on it?
Please say yes. To, like, everything. Pub games sorely, badly, urgently, need it. (and just think, we can wave goodbye to the 'stacking!' and 'pub stomping!' threads too).
On the topic of skill balanced teams... I've been wondering, will it be able to recognize if a player is really good at one side and really bad at the other?
For example say player (x) is really good at Aliens and able to consistently get good scores, but as a Marine they're next to worthless and barely able to do anything... If it puts that player on Marines for balance purposes, wouldn't it have the opposite affect of unbalancing it in favor of Aliens?
Will long standing not-so-technical issues also be tackled? One of the major of these, which is especially hard on new players, is how the game deals with displaying health and damage.
Without looking directly at the lower left corner of the screen, it's very difficult to know how big of a hit you just took and when its time to leave. In most games this simply doesn't matter, since you would act pretty much the same way whether you're taking a lot or a little damage and figure out what to do about it after the engagement. In NS2 the aliens continually skirt death and heal up. You can somewhat mitigate this by treating players statistically (he's a good player and has a shotgun -> be standoffish and just take quick pot shots if it's not worth losing a lifeform over) and getting better at keeping track of subtle hints, looking at the health meter during combat etc. Learning this is a high barrier to entry and provides no fulfilment whatsoever.
There are a number of reasons I have identified for why this is difficult in NS2:
* The very high latency of around half a second between another player firing on you and you taking damage means you just don't know you took a shotgun to the face until it's too late. This is a major culprit, but it's almost impossible to fix (hard technical issues that make NS2 laggier than NS1). You can sort of get around this as a player by always dodging and weaving when engaging another player even if they aren't looking at you and by treating players statistically (how good is he, what weapon does he have -> how long can I stay).
* The player sounds do not indicate damage properly. Whether you took a full shotgun blast to the face or you were hit with one LMG bullet or shotgun pellet you still make the same noise. You can't readily tell the difference between being hit by 3 lmg bullets spread out over time and a continous stream of LMG bullets. This kills new lerks all the time; if you're healing a new player and they're spiking a marine in the distance; if they take some pot shots from the marines they just don't react when they suddenly take a continuous stream of bullets from the marines. They have a reaction time of about a second or more. I refuse to believe they have the reaction time of a sedated cow just because they are new to NS2; so it is NS2 that is at fault. Most FPS since doom have had something like this, including NS1; you take a big chunk of damage in one hit or in a short amount of time and you make a special pain noise.
* New players often don't realize the importance of armor (if you heal them, they almost always leave just after they recieve full health and little/no armor). The armor portion of the health meter could be displayed in an exaggerated way, as if it corresponded to a certain amount of health points (assume normal damage). This would make it apparent that it is more important than health points.
* The health counter does nothing obvious to indicate current health that can be seen without looking directly at it. There are many plausible ways to do this. The classic is to change colour stepwise (green->orange->red) when you get below a set amount (e.g. 2/3 health and 1/3 health, including armor counted assuming normal damage); this gives a sharp GTFO-warning that is difficult to miss. You can change colour gradually from green through to red in direct proportion to the health (again including armor as health, assuming normal damage). You can unfurl the little circular bar into a straight bar and display it with a length proportional to remaining health so that it's easily visible in the corner of your eye.
* The current system of indicating imminent death with red throbbing and visual distortions is both annoying and non-functional. The only time you ever see it is when you just barely survived a fight. During the fight it kicks in so late you die before it provides any useful information unless the other player reloads or something (in which case you can look at your health meter). If it kicked in earlier it is so annoying it would likely cause you to lose the fight, so this is not an option.
Comments
Never patch on fridays DOESNT MEAN SH*T for community development, on the contrary.
edit: PG lines with arrows but without animation is indeed a blessing for the eyes.
The fields of red tape have been reduced me thinks......
It's just a shame that despite all this wonderful work the monthly average player base continues to decline.
It has dipped below the 500 player mark for the first time, currently at an all time low of 437 players, the lowest it's ever been since launch!
http://www.steamcharts.com/app/4920
Game could do with some new positive publicity.
I haven´t seen it yet but I always imagine the marine been catapulted into the wall. Cracks up a smile everytime.
THANKS FOR THE HARD WORK!
I haven´t seen it yet but I always imagine the marine been catapulted into the wall. Cracks up a smile everytime.
THANKS FOR THE HARD WORK!
[/quote]
No Marines were harmed in the making of this fix... at least that is the official statement
I will try that with HBZ on next trainining.
The IP "push" (for Marine players) only occurs on when they are AFK during the respawn sequence. If you're moving your camera around, etc, it will not bump you off the IP.
Omg.. this I missed in the patchnotes..but DC WANT.
Finally my gorgy can again hapilly spit out tunnels which should be legal to begin with.
Is this your suttle way of pushing the community to complete ns2+ adoption?
Also, will gorges have to nerfed because they now hit at close range. I have seen some nasty war gorges out there even with this bug.
It wasn't that subtle, was it? But that's a NS2+ thing, options!
I think I was not clear enough what I was jesting at; it was not your comment right there but more that the options are not in ns2 therefore one must get ns2+ for the full experience.
I can't remember if we tested that or not, but it should produce the same result. The system simply applies a physics force to nudge an idle player off the IP, but it doesn't do anything special. If something is in the way that prevents them from being nudged far enough they can stay on it and still create a problem. Anything more radical has a solid chance to create bigger problems, so we went with the simple solution that, while not covering every edge case, works in most "reasonable" scenarios.
TL;DR - it's better than nothing without being worse than nothing.
There will be a DLC soon
Congratulations on the release, and thankyou so much for creating it!
Also, a short while ago @Acedude was working on a much improved system for skill-balanced teams to replace 'Randomize Ready Room' and 'Force even teams', both of which are about as much help as testicles on a teacup. He was basing it off the work of a Google chap's proposal posted here.
Is this still happening? Have the community devs taking this over, or is Acedude still working on it?
Please say yes. To, like, everything. Pub games sorely, badly, urgently, need it. (and just think, we can wave goodbye to the 'stacking!' and 'pub stomping!' threads too).
For example say player (x) is really good at Aliens and able to consistently get good scores, but as a Marine they're next to worthless and barely able to do anything... If it puts that player on Marines for balance purposes, wouldn't it have the opposite affect of unbalancing it in favor of Aliens?
Solid PG lines
Dashed PG lines
It's a texture, so you can mod them... the UI folder is whitelisted so I don't think we need an option
Will long standing not-so-technical issues also be tackled? One of the major of these, which is especially hard on new players, is how the game deals with displaying health and damage.
Without looking directly at the lower left corner of the screen, it's very difficult to know how big of a hit you just took and when its time to leave. In most games this simply doesn't matter, since you would act pretty much the same way whether you're taking a lot or a little damage and figure out what to do about it after the engagement. In NS2 the aliens continually skirt death and heal up. You can somewhat mitigate this by treating players statistically (he's a good player and has a shotgun -> be standoffish and just take quick pot shots if it's not worth losing a lifeform over) and getting better at keeping track of subtle hints, looking at the health meter during combat etc. Learning this is a high barrier to entry and provides no fulfilment whatsoever.
There are a number of reasons I have identified for why this is difficult in NS2:
* The very high latency of around half a second between another player firing on you and you taking damage means you just don't know you took a shotgun to the face until it's too late. This is a major culprit, but it's almost impossible to fix (hard technical issues that make NS2 laggier than NS1). You can sort of get around this as a player by always dodging and weaving when engaging another player even if they aren't looking at you and by treating players statistically (how good is he, what weapon does he have -> how long can I stay).
* The player sounds do not indicate damage properly. Whether you took a full shotgun blast to the face or you were hit with one LMG bullet or shotgun pellet you still make the same noise. You can't readily tell the difference between being hit by 3 lmg bullets spread out over time and a continous stream of LMG bullets. This kills new lerks all the time; if you're healing a new player and they're spiking a marine in the distance; if they take some pot shots from the marines they just don't react when they suddenly take a continuous stream of bullets from the marines. They have a reaction time of about a second or more. I refuse to believe they have the reaction time of a sedated cow just because they are new to NS2; so it is NS2 that is at fault. Most FPS since doom have had something like this, including NS1; you take a big chunk of damage in one hit or in a short amount of time and you make a special pain noise.
* New players often don't realize the importance of armor (if you heal them, they almost always leave just after they recieve full health and little/no armor). The armor portion of the health meter could be displayed in an exaggerated way, as if it corresponded to a certain amount of health points (assume normal damage). This would make it apparent that it is more important than health points.
* The health counter does nothing obvious to indicate current health that can be seen without looking directly at it. There are many plausible ways to do this. The classic is to change colour stepwise (green->orange->red) when you get below a set amount (e.g. 2/3 health and 1/3 health, including armor counted assuming normal damage); this gives a sharp GTFO-warning that is difficult to miss. You can change colour gradually from green through to red in direct proportion to the health (again including armor as health, assuming normal damage). You can unfurl the little circular bar into a straight bar and display it with a length proportional to remaining health so that it's easily visible in the corner of your eye.
* The current system of indicating imminent death with red throbbing and visual distortions is both annoying and non-functional. The only time you ever see it is when you just barely survived a fight. During the fight it kicks in so late you die before it provides any useful information unless the other player reloads or something (in which case you can look at your health meter). If it kicked in earlier it is so annoying it would likely cause you to lose the fight, so this is not an option.