Nice patch
Crush text description is a bit sketchy, what does it do exactly? Does it mean I can 2 shoot armor 0 marines with 2 bites if I have 3 shells with crush?
...
Crush has a modal behavior to it so it isn't too powerful. When damaging players, the amount of Armor consumed is increased up to 15%. This doesn't change the early game (killing Armor0 marine in two bites). The changelog was updated to reflect that as a mislabeling was unintentionally added.
I really want to know other players opinions of crush. With 3 shells placed it reduces an RT kill from 60 to 54 bites for a skulk, and 25 to 22 for an onos. Does that sound like enough extra damage? Any comp player want to chime in on how big a difference 6 bites on an rt can make?
I really want to know other players opinions of crush. With 3 shells placed it reduces an RT kill from 60 to 54 bites for a skulk, and 25 to 22 for an onos. Does that sound like enough extra damage? Any comp player want to chime in on how big a difference 6 bites on an rt can make?
I could literally keep pressure on a defended TP location on my own. Just disappear behind a corner and regenerate all your armor.
I have been doing this to a lesser extent with regen for some time now.
Considering you're trading off full cara for it, it may not seem like enough, but if you're a skilled res bitter and it's all you're doing (i.e. you're not trying to fight marines and you successfully evade them if they come defend an rt) it would be worth it, in my personal opinion. 6 bites per rt adds up, but it does seem kinda weak considering that's 3 shells.
Nice patch
Crush text description is a bit sketchy, what does it do exactly? Does it mean I can 2 shoot armor 0 marines with 2 bites if I have 3 shells with crush?
...
Crush has a modal behavior to it so it isn't too powerful. When damaging players, the amount of Armor consumed is increased up to 15%. This doesn't change the early game (killing Armor0 marine in two bites). The changelog was updated to reflect that as a mislabeling was unintentionally added.
Ok, I guess it won't have any effect on exos? Or are they treated as structures?
Also about Vampire, I think it's a bit unequal for example onos healing 2% of total health per hit compared to skulks with 15%.
But still nice patch overall
Crush text description is a bit sketchy, what does it do exactly? Does it mean I can 2 shoot armor 0 marines with 2 bites if I have 3 shells with crush?
About the HMG I wonder if the research wouldn't be better placed as a direct option to the shotgun, so that marines have a choice instead of a path of researches.
Please remove the holo sight, it makes no sense since marines are supposed to have a crosshair linked to their helmet HUD.
Also another idea of new weapon: a Lightning Gun that fires elecricity that slows down aliens, that could be quite cool I think.
Looks like the gun version of a pulse grenade. But doesn't flamethrower already take out alien energy?
Give it another purpose, slowing down is bad idea, but in itself lightning gun would be fun indeed.
Imo, the main theme of the flamer should remain damage over time, and energy drain more secondary.
But for a hypothetical 'tesla' gun, a stun could work as well but may be quite op in NS2, so not unless there is some heavy drawback, like if the stun is a kind of alt fire slow-moving orb that forces you to reload afterward.
Crush text description is a bit sketchy, what does it do exactly? Does it mean I can 2 shoot armor 0 marines with 2 bites if I have 3 shells with crush?
About the HMG I wonder if the research wouldn't be better placed as a direct option to the shotgun, so that marines have a choice instead of a path of researches.
Also another idea for new wepon: a Lightning Gun that fires elecricity that slows down aliens, that could be quite cool.
So funny you say that, we were joking about one yesterday... I love the yellow skin
Crush sound pretty weak to me. 15% is not noticeable to the player. Even if we suppose that the damage can't be increased any further without being overpowered, that just means it's not a very fun idea for an upgrade IMO.
Crush sound pretty weak to me. 15% is not noticeable to the player. Even if we suppose that the damage can't be increased any further without being overpowered, that just means it's not a very fun idea for an upgrade IMO.
We tested it at 30% and it was actually pretty insane. The speed a skulk or two can kill an RT or counterattack to kill a CC with crush made a huge difference in being able to respond to attacks. It was changed to 15% before the build was pushed based on feedback from the games we played.
Now that mines are so weak, can we remove them from being highlighted in alien visions?
You had me nodding my head agreeing, until that line
I have wanted AV not to highlight mines for a long time. Hear me out.
There are other ways to enable aliens to counter Mines. For example, mines could flash and beep every few seconds, so observant aliens would be alerted by their presence, whereas aliens that rush in will get a nasty surprise.
IronHorseDeveloper, QA Manager, Technical Support & contributorJoin Date: 2010-05-08Member: 71669Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Subnautica Playtester, Subnautica PT Lead, Pistachionauts
@twiliteblue I move too fast as an alien to be able to play the echolocation game, I'm afraid.
@Zek Yea I feel ya on that one. I think they are very willing to adjust numbers, so your feedback is important here.
As Narf said.. from the time an IP began to spin for a respawning player until it popped, I was able to get the CC down to 33% hp as a single skulk.
That just seemed too OP to us, 2 skulks being able to easily kill a CC before a player can even respawn.
Maybe 20% would be better
Vampirism on an onos seems insanely strong right now especially against exos. You seem to be able to heal enough to be able to out survive the exo in a 1v1 not even including bone wall.
loving the shake up so far. keep up the good work guys!
Looks like someone is angling for a forum mod position (took a page right out of Wyz's book).
Believe me, if I were offered a mod position, I would refuse. I have neither the will, nor the patience to deal with the stuff they put up with, especially recently, and I wouldn't hold my tongue either.
Considering you're trading off full cara for it, it may not seem like enough, but if you're a skilled res bitter and it's all you're doing (i.e. you're not trying to fight marines and you successfully evade them if they come defend an rt) it would be worth it, in my personal opinion. 6 bites per rt adds up, but it does seem kinda weak considering that's 3 shells.
Those mirror my thoughts. The additional player damage feels negligible. It still takes 4 skulk bites to kill an A3 marine with or without crush, but I did not test other lifeforms.
HMGs feel like they reload much too quickly. I'd be curious to see the reload/damage/structure damage stats on this vanilla HMG vs the compmod HMG?
The new cysts seem incredibly exploitable in the hands of a competent commander. You can easily have pockets of undying infestation up behind marine lines, stripping armor from extractors and power nodes, and pulling marines away to deal with them. Also dealing with fortified harvesters can be very difficult if the cysts are constantly being reconnected, misted, bonewalled, and blocked a crag/whip, the infestation seems to never disappear.
It would definitely be a big issue in comp 6v6, if such a thing exists again.
Those mirror my thoughts. The additional player damage feels negligible. It still takes 4 skulk bites to kill an A3 marine with or without crush, but I did not test other lifeforms.
The real threat from crush isn't in RT biting but in skulk rushes I guess. Killing a Obs/PG/IPs/CC 10% faster is a decent buff I think since it's a common case in game when some building saves on very low HP. Didn't played this yet tho. Maybe 20% will be better.
Not bad: no need to mod the skulk crosshair to be visible by default (edit: actually, had to make it the same as bite). And the silence upgrade is in the game at last.
- In spectator mode there is no modell of the hmg shown on the characterfield on the left side when a player carries the weapon. The field is just empty.
I hope the sound get fixed soon. As Alien i don't know if there is an exo coming or a hmg-marine.
Last Point: The hmg is too weak at the moment. A base damage of 14 would fit better than 12. At the moment shotgun is still the better choice. The hmg has too many disadvantages:
- Not much stronger then the lmg.
- slower movement on the fieldd.
- with jetpacks useless. The fuel is not enough.
- still costs 5 res more then the sg.
The new cysts seem incredibly exploitable in the hands of a competent commander. You can easily have pockets of undying infestation up behind marine lines, stripping armor from extractors and power nodes, and pulling marines away to deal with them. Also dealing with fortified harvesters can be very difficult if the cysts are constantly being reconnected, misted, bonewalled, and blocked a crag/whip, the infestation seems to never disappear.
It would definitely be a big issue in comp 6v6, if such a thing exists again.
+1. The never dying cysts is a big problem and breaks with the fundamentals of the game. why should i cut cyst-chains now? Its useless because the cysts don't die anymore. Good commanders can cyst all over the map and build things behind enemys lines because marines did not kill all of the cysts that were spammed in their area.
HMGs uses 130% more fuel...not 30, not 40 not 50 not 60 not 70 not 80 not 90 not even 100%...but 130%! who even came up with this number?
Not only does it empty yjhe 100% fuel you have but also takes away the 30% fuel you dont have lol
i know what you mean but a jetpack HMG cant even fly away from a babbler haha a 3 ton exo can fly but a rifle in the arms of a human being is to heavy, ok then UWE
hope this was an late aprilsfools joke ... 130%
Death to the cysts!
Seriously, could PDT make infestation disappear when cyst reaches 0% maturity? Please.
The current mechanics is almost gamebreaking imo. Just can't tolerate it.
It takes too much time to remove infestation because you have to literally walk through half of the map. Time is too important resource.
And infestation can not be ignored, even just one missed cyst gives to Kharmander abilitiy to echo PVE (shade + crag + whip for example).
And it grows so fast, almost immediately.
+1. The never dying cysts is a big problem and breaks with the fundamentals of the game. why should i cut cyst-chains now? Its useless because the cysts don't die anymore. Good commanders can cyst all over the map and build things behind enemys lines because marines did not kill all of the cysts that were spammed in their area.
Please make the cysts die again
At least you don't need to scan them like in SC2 and they don't give vision.
As it is part of crag hive, and skulk upgrades are free to respec, it is worth juggling them depending on if you manage to break through marines or not.
It is also important to recognize the power of pack play and the rate at which RTs could melt.
what about making the in egg time, when you allready have an upgrade in that slot, shorter.. that would make switching more valulabe... from 5 to 2 secs
Jesus christ, been playing games all night and rines won almost every game, regardless of who was on what team. These changes are ridiculous. HMG's are OP as all hell, two rines can take out an onos easily now. The only times the aliens have won in the games I've played were when they cheesed rush the rine base early on. How fun. Furthermore seriously? Mines are 4 res a mine now when it was 5 res per mine before. Mines can give one rine 3 kills, maybe more if the skulks move together, and they needed to be easier to obtain?? Granted they are 40 hp, but not many skulks will parasite mines. Instead they run into them, mostly on accident. Don't tell me that it takes more skill to go up to an armory, purchase mines, place mines somewhere where skulks can't really see or near vents, wait for your insta kills than it is to be a good alien. ANY alien. Honestly, mines should go back to 15 res but for 2 mines, same with how they reduced the amount of grenades marines get in a pack.
Why don't the devs recognize that playing marines is MUCH easier than playing aliens. Run somewhere, point, shoot. People, especially new players of NS2 are much more capable of playing rines due to the prevalence of hundreds of FPS games. I bought this game 2 years ago BECAUSE of aliens and hoping that ns2 would bring something fresh, new and balanced to the continuously stale fps genre. But this recent patch just appeals to the fps crowd while screwing over their one interesting feature: alien gameplay. I mean now they just made it even easier to be a good rine with hmg. Doesn't help that lerks and fades are slow as all hell. Rewarding the easiest to play faction with even easier to use weapons. In that case, give onos the ability to eat rines again. Onos are no longer the terrifying behemoths that are supposed to be the tank of aliens that would force 1-2 rines to back up and force rines to work together, not go rambo to take down the onos. Now, onoses are just a big ass target for hmgs and jetpack chasing practice.
Yes I know that aliens are supposed to sneak around and be tactful and ambush and crap, but when the entire rine team is pushing a hive or if there is a huge battle, aliens don't have time or reason to sneak and ambush when the hive is dying or there is a time sensitive event (tunnel dying, rushing from one area to another, etc). Even more so if rine comm just spams scan/obs everywhere.
Two years I've played this game and overtime I've seen aliens get shat on patch after patch. Whip nerf, speed nerf, damage nerf. Nerf after nerf while rines consistenly get buff after buff. I already know of 3 other players (these players have over 1k hours each inlcuding myself) who said they no longer wish to play ns2 due to these ridiculous, laughable changes to obviously cater to rines. Even the one friend who always vehemently sided with rines and opposed any nerf to rines while approving of any buff to aliens. After tonight's games and forcing him to play aliens, he finally god damn agrees with what I've been saying for over a year now. ALIENS NEED A BUFF.
Devs, take into account how much more skill it takes to be an alien than a rine. Think about how easy it is to lob grenades into a hive with a nearby armory, how easy it is to put mines in sneaky places like vents or around corners or in the middle of a doorway, how easy it is to use grenades launchers and flamethrower. HOW MUCH GOD DAMN AOE ATTACK RINES HAVE OVER ALIENS. Hurr hurr let me spam grenade launcher in the general vicinity of aliens to not only give a pretty effective suppression fire but easy kills too and now aliens are egglocked because they can only choose between one of two ways to attack rines. In front of them, or near the mined up vent that has some rine spamming nades into the vent. Oh wait, we can try to run halfway across the map, turn to hit the marine backs- oh mines/some random obs. Nvm. And if I die as a rine, don't worry, I can rely on my teammates or myself to get my weapon back! Death means nothing to me as a marine! Alien AOE just as good as marine AEO? LOL! Obviously you haven't played the game, or at least with normal players in any regular server. Bile doesn't kill rines, spore is ridiculously easy to avoid and counter with one flamethrower. Can't get stomp or xeno without a third tech point while rines can get everything with one tech point. Aliens can't stop grenades, they lost their anti nade whips and now they lost their speed, their attack, and their ability to sneak. Why not just make it where if you're on aliens, the game just automatically makes aliens lose in beginning?
Here are some of my suggestions on how to actually balance the game, coming from someone who over 1k hours and from my fellow ns2 players who also logged 1k - 2k+ hours as well as played ns1:
Marines
1. Mines: need to be 15 res but for two mines, not 3.
2. HMGs: need to either have a longer reload time or have something similar to exos where they can overheat. Add more spread to HMGs. What do marines have the strength of Thor himself to hold what feels like a 200 pound rifle with enough strength to combat its recoil?
3. Observatory: The number of obs allowed should be the number of tech points the marines have + 1. Rine comms placing obs down anywhere everywhere just basically destroys the only good element of aliens: the element of surprise. MAKE rine commanders actually think about where to put an obs down.
4. Scans: The amount of res for a scan should be 8. Again, this is to FORCE rine comm to be smarter about when to scan and not just be able to constantly scan the whole map for a few res.
5. Flamethrowers: Increase overall damage, give a multiplier to alien structure damage. An extra 10-15% is good against alien structures.
6. Grenade Launcher: Increase the amount of time it takes for the grenade to blow up. Reduce the range of its aoe. No more "sitting behind my teammates because I want to pad my score" noob tube please. Reduce amount of structure damage by 10-15% multiplier. It blows up WAY too fast to aliens to even react to a grenade. Plus one gl does MASSIVE damage to hives already, now pair it with a big ass room like veil's cargo or generator or any room that is has the unfortunate feature of having high ceilings. Aliens might as well just roll over and die if there's some rine spamming grenade launcher in a GOD DAMN DOORWAY.
7. Exos and Welders: Reduce the rate in which a welder can weld an exo. Again, an exo + welder vs an onos and gorge, yea my money's on the exo + welder Because the welder prob has a shotgun/grenade launcher. And a jetpack. Gorges have nothing on that.
8. Dropped weapons on ground: Reduce HP of dropped weapons. 120-150 hp is a good range.
9. Arcs, should be 20 res per arc with slightly reduced range. Build time increased to double. At least give aliens a chance to actually somewhat prepare for arcs ffs. By the time an alien sees one arc, it's pretty much over for whatever area the marines are about to arc since aliens are now slower to react thanks to speed nerf.
Aliens
1. Ok fine, if you're gonna give rines something as stupidly overpowered as hmg, then give onos ability to eat rines again then. Obviously this hurts the onos since the eaten rine will punch the onos in the gut or give him bad gas or something, but like ns1, it hurts them.
2. Gorges: Spitting damage should be 40-50. Because it's hard to spit what seems like a really slow ball of mucous that rines can actually react to in time to dodge. Belly slide should be a bit faster. Don't punish people for going support. Reward people for not inflating their ego and trying to get the highest kdr and are instead actually trying to help the whole team.
3. Overall alien speed: seriously, aliens were meant to be fast ambushers that were a bit fragile. You guys basically made the ambushing part null thanks to unlimited obs, cheap scans, mines EVERYWHERE, and easy to use grenades/launchers/flamethrowers. Now you nerfed alien speed. Are you just letting aliens become slow moving target practice for other balanced fps games?
4. Increase lerk/fade hp a bit more, nerf onos hp a bit more. REWARD PLAYERS FOR PLAYING THE HARDEST TO USE FEATURE IN GAME. Lerks and fades are the hardest thing the use, especially for newcomers. Don't tell me it's as easy or easier to play as a fade or lerk than it is as a marine with literally any weapons or exo. Point and shoot. Fades and lerks are more like, duck, dive, weave, confuse, run away, assess situation, try again to charge a rine because there's usually not any nearby ways to flank or the area they're in is unflankable. Once that lifeform dies, they lose all that res. Once a rine dies with an expensive weapon, wow, they usually get it back. People need to stop only saving up for onos and forgetting about the mid game non onos lifeforms thus screwing aliens over. Again, reward skill.
I apologize if my rant has some grammatical issues or whatever but it's 6 am, i'm pissed of these changes but even more pissed that a good chunk of my friends who've played this game for so long are actually leaving now due to this RIDICULOUS buff to marines. So much so that I just had to make a forum account for the first time and voice my thoughts and rant. Marines can have their op hmg, just GOD DAMN NERF IT NOW. And/or give aliens a SERIOUS buff to counter this bullshit. Hell just give onos the ability to eat rines again, instead of just making them a slower fat target.
Hell the server I was on was making jokes all night about how if anyone was on aliens, they were gonna lose. The sad part? They were right about 90% of the time when aliens didn't cheese or if it HEAVILY stacked on alien side. Seriously, marines needed a major nerf a while back, but the devs went the opposite route to, what, appease them I guess? Screw aliens amirite? I wanna play another generic fps shooter in a game where you can play as non shooting aliens. And yes, I'm sure the devs are trying their best and I'm glad they are giving updates to the game. So thank you devs for trying to help the game. But don't destroy the one unique thing you guys got going in a world where there's an fps game around every corner: Alien gameplay.
try a server without HPbars ^^ ... shhhhh... sry... just came to mind ^^ I totally like the Balance right now and games feel equal, fast , strategic, unforgiving and satisfying... like they should... I'm talking about 7v7. I have no experience in higher player counts... but the 7v7 experience REALLY improved. as for issues with it, I couldn't tell after testing it for what.. 12 hours now? ... when we decided to make the Onos Gore changes back in the days it was based on MONTHS of whitnessing the same patterns over and over again. What are your complaints based on?.. a hunch? .. personal preference has no place in balance talk
Those mirror my thoughts. The additional player damage feels negligible. It still takes 4 skulk bites to kill an A3 marine with or without crush, but I did not test other lifeforms.
The real threat from crush isn't in RT biting but in skulk rushes I guess. Killing a Obs/PG/IPs/CC 10% faster is a decent buff I think since it's a common case in game when some building saves on very low HP. Didn't played this yet tho. Maybe 20% will be better.
Yep and don't forget the bonus multiplies with enzyme in case aliens have 2 hives.
Simply untrue, marines have never been this easy to kill due to the medpack change.
You probably were in games where aliens have no teamplay, they don't baserush, resbite, packplay, gorges don't even heal lol, and so on...
Can't expect much from this type of team, certainly not balance the game around them.
But I don't agree that aliens should be able to directly stop the marine push. It's intended that they must go around and hit the res or rush something.
Mines/obs: I've learned from the start that mines and obs all over the map is the sign that marines have too much money. We're seeing more of it because skulks were nerfed to the floor by the healthbars.
Comments
Crush has a modal behavior to it so it isn't too powerful. When damaging players, the amount of Armor consumed is increased up to 15%. This doesn't change the early game (killing Armor0 marine in two bites). The changelog was updated to reflect that as a mislabeling was unintentionally added.
I have been doing this to a lesser extent with regen for some time now.
Considering you're trading off full cara for it, it may not seem like enough, but if you're a skilled res bitter and it's all you're doing (i.e. you're not trying to fight marines and you successfully evade them if they come defend an rt) it would be worth it, in my personal opinion. 6 bites per rt adds up, but it does seem kinda weak considering that's 3 shells.
Ok, I guess it won't have any effect on exos? Or are they treated as structures?
Also about Vampire, I think it's a bit unequal for example onos healing 2% of total health per hit compared to skulks with 15%.
But still nice patch overall
Imo, the main theme of the flamer should remain damage over time, and energy drain more secondary.
But for a hypothetical 'tesla' gun, a stun could work as well but may be quite op in NS2, so not unless there is some heavy drawback, like if the stun is a kind of alt fire slow-moving orb that forces you to reload afterward.
Sounds pretty A-Mei-zing.
We tested it at 30% and it was actually pretty insane. The speed a skulk or two can kill an RT or counterattack to kill a CC with crush made a huge difference in being able to respond to attacks. It was changed to 15% before the build was pushed based on feedback from the games we played.
I have wanted AV not to highlight mines for a long time. Hear me out.
There are other ways to enable aliens to counter Mines. For example, mines could flash and beep every few seconds, so observant aliens would be alerted by their presence, whereas aliens that rush in will get a nasty surprise.
Can't wait to play the new patch!
@Zek Yea I feel ya on that one. I think they are very willing to adjust numbers, so your feedback is important here.
As Narf said.. from the time an IP began to spin for a respawning player until it popped, I was able to get the CC down to 33% hp as a single skulk.
That just seemed too OP to us, 2 skulks being able to easily kill a CC before a player can even respawn.
Maybe 20% would be better
Believe me, if I were offered a mod position, I would refuse. I have neither the will, nor the patience to deal with the stuff they put up with, especially recently, and I wouldn't hold my tongue either.
The new cysts seem incredibly exploitable in the hands of a competent commander. You can easily have pockets of undying infestation up behind marine lines, stripping armor from extractors and power nodes, and pulling marines away to deal with them. Also dealing with fortified harvesters can be very difficult if the cysts are constantly being reconnected, misted, bonewalled, and blocked a crag/whip, the infestation seems to never disappear.
It would definitely be a big issue in comp 6v6, if such a thing exists again.
The real threat from crush isn't in RT biting but in skulk rushes I guess. Killing a Obs/PG/IPs/CC 10% faster is a decent buff I think since it's a common case in game when some building saves on very low HP. Didn't played this yet tho. Maybe 20% will be better.
The white lines on everything is not only ugly, but it brings back skybox highlighting too...
Annoys me too.
- In spectator mode there is no modell of the hmg shown on the characterfield on the left side when a player carries the weapon. The field is just empty.
I hope the sound get fixed soon. As Alien i don't know if there is an exo coming or a hmg-marine.
Last Point: The hmg is too weak at the moment. A base damage of 14 would fit better than 12. At the moment shotgun is still the better choice. The hmg has too many disadvantages:
- Not much stronger then the lmg.
- slower movement on the fieldd.
- with jetpacks useless. The fuel is not enough.
- still costs 5 res more then the sg.
+1. The never dying cysts is a big problem and breaks with the fundamentals of the game. why should i cut cyst-chains now? Its useless because the cysts don't die anymore. Good commanders can cyst all over the map and build things behind enemys lines because marines did not kill all of the cysts that were spammed in their area.
Please make the cysts die again
Not only does it empty yjhe 100% fuel you have but also takes away the 30% fuel you dont have lol
i know what you mean but a jetpack HMG cant even fly away from a babbler haha a 3 ton exo can fly but a rifle in the arms of a human being is to heavy, ok then UWE
hope this was an late aprilsfools joke ... 130%
Seriously, could PDT make infestation disappear when cyst reaches 0% maturity? Please.
The current mechanics is almost gamebreaking imo. Just can't tolerate it.
It takes too much time to remove infestation because you have to literally walk through half of the map. Time is too important resource.
And infestation can not be ignored, even just one missed cyst gives to Kharmander abilitiy to echo PVE (shade + crag + whip for example).
And it grows so fast, almost immediately.
At least you don't need to scan them like in SC2 and they don't give vision.
As it is part of crag hive, and skulk upgrades are free to respec, it is worth juggling them depending on if you manage to break through marines or not.
It is also important to recognize the power of pack play and the rate at which RTs could melt.
Why don't the devs recognize that playing marines is MUCH easier than playing aliens. Run somewhere, point, shoot. People, especially new players of NS2 are much more capable of playing rines due to the prevalence of hundreds of FPS games. I bought this game 2 years ago BECAUSE of aliens and hoping that ns2 would bring something fresh, new and balanced to the continuously stale fps genre. But this recent patch just appeals to the fps crowd while screwing over their one interesting feature: alien gameplay. I mean now they just made it even easier to be a good rine with hmg. Doesn't help that lerks and fades are slow as all hell. Rewarding the easiest to play faction with even easier to use weapons. In that case, give onos the ability to eat rines again. Onos are no longer the terrifying behemoths that are supposed to be the tank of aliens that would force 1-2 rines to back up and force rines to work together, not go rambo to take down the onos. Now, onoses are just a big ass target for hmgs and jetpack chasing practice.
Yes I know that aliens are supposed to sneak around and be tactful and ambush and crap, but when the entire rine team is pushing a hive or if there is a huge battle, aliens don't have time or reason to sneak and ambush when the hive is dying or there is a time sensitive event (tunnel dying, rushing from one area to another, etc). Even more so if rine comm just spams scan/obs everywhere.
Two years I've played this game and overtime I've seen aliens get shat on patch after patch. Whip nerf, speed nerf, damage nerf. Nerf after nerf while rines consistenly get buff after buff. I already know of 3 other players (these players have over 1k hours each inlcuding myself) who said they no longer wish to play ns2 due to these ridiculous, laughable changes to obviously cater to rines. Even the one friend who always vehemently sided with rines and opposed any nerf to rines while approving of any buff to aliens. After tonight's games and forcing him to play aliens, he finally god damn agrees with what I've been saying for over a year now. ALIENS NEED A BUFF.
Devs, take into account how much more skill it takes to be an alien than a rine. Think about how easy it is to lob grenades into a hive with a nearby armory, how easy it is to put mines in sneaky places like vents or around corners or in the middle of a doorway, how easy it is to use grenades launchers and flamethrower. HOW MUCH GOD DAMN AOE ATTACK RINES HAVE OVER ALIENS. Hurr hurr let me spam grenade launcher in the general vicinity of aliens to not only give a pretty effective suppression fire but easy kills too and now aliens are egglocked because they can only choose between one of two ways to attack rines. In front of them, or near the mined up vent that has some rine spamming nades into the vent. Oh wait, we can try to run halfway across the map, turn to hit the marine backs- oh mines/some random obs. Nvm. And if I die as a rine, don't worry, I can rely on my teammates or myself to get my weapon back! Death means nothing to me as a marine! Alien AOE just as good as marine AEO? LOL! Obviously you haven't played the game, or at least with normal players in any regular server. Bile doesn't kill rines, spore is ridiculously easy to avoid and counter with one flamethrower. Can't get stomp or xeno without a third tech point while rines can get everything with one tech point. Aliens can't stop grenades, they lost their anti nade whips and now they lost their speed, their attack, and their ability to sneak. Why not just make it where if you're on aliens, the game just automatically makes aliens lose in beginning?
Here are some of my suggestions on how to actually balance the game, coming from someone who over 1k hours and from my fellow ns2 players who also logged 1k - 2k+ hours as well as played ns1:
Marines
1. Mines: need to be 15 res but for two mines, not 3.
2. HMGs: need to either have a longer reload time or have something similar to exos where they can overheat. Add more spread to HMGs. What do marines have the strength of Thor himself to hold what feels like a 200 pound rifle with enough strength to combat its recoil?
3. Observatory: The number of obs allowed should be the number of tech points the marines have + 1. Rine comms placing obs down anywhere everywhere just basically destroys the only good element of aliens: the element of surprise. MAKE rine commanders actually think about where to put an obs down.
4. Scans: The amount of res for a scan should be 8. Again, this is to FORCE rine comm to be smarter about when to scan and not just be able to constantly scan the whole map for a few res.
5. Flamethrowers: Increase overall damage, give a multiplier to alien structure damage. An extra 10-15% is good against alien structures.
6. Grenade Launcher: Increase the amount of time it takes for the grenade to blow up. Reduce the range of its aoe. No more "sitting behind my teammates because I want to pad my score" noob tube please. Reduce amount of structure damage by 10-15% multiplier. It blows up WAY too fast to aliens to even react to a grenade. Plus one gl does MASSIVE damage to hives already, now pair it with a big ass room like veil's cargo or generator or any room that is has the unfortunate feature of having high ceilings. Aliens might as well just roll over and die if there's some rine spamming grenade launcher in a GOD DAMN DOORWAY.
7. Exos and Welders: Reduce the rate in which a welder can weld an exo. Again, an exo + welder vs an onos and gorge, yea my money's on the exo + welder Because the welder prob has a shotgun/grenade launcher. And a jetpack. Gorges have nothing on that.
8. Dropped weapons on ground: Reduce HP of dropped weapons. 120-150 hp is a good range.
9. Arcs, should be 20 res per arc with slightly reduced range. Build time increased to double. At least give aliens a chance to actually somewhat prepare for arcs ffs. By the time an alien sees one arc, it's pretty much over for whatever area the marines are about to arc since aliens are now slower to react thanks to speed nerf.
Aliens
1. Ok fine, if you're gonna give rines something as stupidly overpowered as hmg, then give onos ability to eat rines again then. Obviously this hurts the onos since the eaten rine will punch the onos in the gut or give him bad gas or something, but like ns1, it hurts them.
2. Gorges: Spitting damage should be 40-50. Because it's hard to spit what seems like a really slow ball of mucous that rines can actually react to in time to dodge. Belly slide should be a bit faster. Don't punish people for going support. Reward people for not inflating their ego and trying to get the highest kdr and are instead actually trying to help the whole team.
3. Overall alien speed: seriously, aliens were meant to be fast ambushers that were a bit fragile. You guys basically made the ambushing part null thanks to unlimited obs, cheap scans, mines EVERYWHERE, and easy to use grenades/launchers/flamethrowers. Now you nerfed alien speed. Are you just letting aliens become slow moving target practice for other balanced fps games?
4. Increase lerk/fade hp a bit more, nerf onos hp a bit more. REWARD PLAYERS FOR PLAYING THE HARDEST TO USE FEATURE IN GAME. Lerks and fades are the hardest thing the use, especially for newcomers. Don't tell me it's as easy or easier to play as a fade or lerk than it is as a marine with literally any weapons or exo. Point and shoot. Fades and lerks are more like, duck, dive, weave, confuse, run away, assess situation, try again to charge a rine because there's usually not any nearby ways to flank or the area they're in is unflankable. Once that lifeform dies, they lose all that res. Once a rine dies with an expensive weapon, wow, they usually get it back. People need to stop only saving up for onos and forgetting about the mid game non onos lifeforms thus screwing aliens over. Again, reward skill.
I apologize if my rant has some grammatical issues or whatever but it's 6 am, i'm pissed of these changes but even more pissed that a good chunk of my friends who've played this game for so long are actually leaving now due to this RIDICULOUS buff to marines. So much so that I just had to make a forum account for the first time and voice my thoughts and rant. Marines can have their op hmg, just GOD DAMN NERF IT NOW. And/or give aliens a SERIOUS buff to counter this bullshit. Hell just give onos the ability to eat rines again, instead of just making them a slower fat target.
Hell the server I was on was making jokes all night about how if anyone was on aliens, they were gonna lose. The sad part? They were right about 90% of the time when aliens didn't cheese or if it HEAVILY stacked on alien side. Seriously, marines needed a major nerf a while back, but the devs went the opposite route to, what, appease them I guess? Screw aliens amirite? I wanna play another generic fps shooter in a game where you can play as non shooting aliens. And yes, I'm sure the devs are trying their best and I'm glad they are giving updates to the game. So thank you devs for trying to help the game. But don't destroy the one unique thing you guys got going in a world where there's an fps game around every corner: Alien gameplay.
Yep and don't forget the bonus multiplies with enzyme in case aliens have 2 hives.
Simply untrue, marines have never been this easy to kill due to the medpack change.
You probably were in games where aliens have no teamplay, they don't baserush, resbite, packplay, gorges don't even heal lol, and so on...
Can't expect much from this type of team, certainly not balance the game around them.
True about punishing people who play alien.
But I don't agree that aliens should be able to directly stop the marine push. It's intended that they must go around and hit the res or rush something.
Mines/obs: I've learned from the start that mines and obs all over the map is the sign that marines have too much money. We're seeing more of it because skulks were nerfed to the floor by the healthbars.