Hmmm....
It may work for a 6vs6 but definitely not with more players. Problem is I don't see servers only playing 6vs6 anymore.
Exos are cheap.
Let me depict the common games I see lately. Yes I play on servers with high player count. And i spectate on other as well. You'll get why i mention it soon.
Marine have the early game and try to rush everywhere (traditional thing in NS2). This is aggressive and a common behavior for ground unit that have a ranged weapon.
2 options then :
A / Aliens barely survive that firepower but still manage to go on with a decent second hive. At the same time they kill extractors as much as possible.
B / Alien get boxed and surrender.
For scenario "A" : the alien can make some Lerks and some Fades soon after the early game to re-balance the territory share. Even with early Lerk sometimes. But those are laggy lerks right?! Things get ugly as the marines can buy cheap exos. Whatever it's a modified server or not. Dual or single gun exos; it's the same.
The only counter at the B315 time was an Onos + Gorge duo. The Onos is the meat shield while the gorge is biling from behind. Now it's not possible anymore. Onos are fragile and cannot be useful anymore as a shield. FYI a onos is always needed with 2 upgrades to minimize risks on those servers. so it's not cheap. It goes up to 62 + 8 + 8... Not that cheap.
The gorges could do it alone would you say. Wrong. The gorge can actually kill those exos but at the expense of their lives and only to delay the inevitable. Simply because the marine can buy it back. So basically the game enters some kind of brief pause. But everybody knows what happens next.
I've gone through games where i killed more than the marine top player and still loose. It's like a siege. The progression is slow and requires less organization for marines. I see marines ejecting and repairing themselves their exos while the other exos make a front line. This would have not happen in B315.
Now we go through games that are insane. I've seen 5 successful rushes on different heavily guarded marine base, growing hive fast; only to see all that fall into ruins hive after hive. The marine don't even care as they're using this cheap tactic (exos). I mean we do that kind of rush on public server (noticeable to say the least). Aliens use better teamwork and still loose. I would never be like that on b315.
The onosplosion was necessary to unlock the 3rd part of the game. Otherwise it would have been marines win 100%. Unless a cheap tunnel pops up would say a bad tong. But non the less. it was the sign the marines couldn't organize properly to finish it. And that was fair to the alien. This is a res based game after all. Attack res not the players.
I think this should have been tested on large server. In this environment you can see quite clearly what is "not enough" and what is "too much". Any imbalance thing is exploited to the extreme.
Right now it's: Rush everywhere, buy exos, win, end of story. The only times i see marine loose is when they loose every early engagements (at least the most important ones.). Let's just say alien can't get a Onos up before the marines surrender.
I always think that making the game too easy for the marines will never get player retention any better. Those rookies clearly see they get cheap win. Therefore they don't go alien and miss the whole point of this game.
PS: those Onos who solo everything aren't the one to consider in this matter. I got a good computer, good connection. I wouldn't dare going in front of 3 LMGs A1/W1. It's suicide when you play like everyone should (the proper equipment).
Comments
Yea, hopefully this change will force people a bit more to learn how to play alien.
It may work for a 6vs6 but definitely not with more players. Problem is I don't see servers only playing 6vs6 anymore.
Exos are cheap.
Let me depict the common games I see lately. Yes I play on servers with high player count. And i spectate on other as well. You'll get why i mention it soon.
Marine have the early game and try to rush everywhere (traditional thing in NS2). This is aggressive and a common behavior for ground unit that have a ranged weapon.
2 options then :
A / Aliens barely survive that firepower but still manage to go on with a decent second hive. At the same time they kill extractors as much as possible.
B / Alien get boxed and surrender.
For scenario "A" : the alien can make some Lerks and some Fades soon after the early game to re-balance the territory share. Even with early Lerk sometimes. But those are laggy lerks right?! Things get ugly as the marines can buy cheap exos. Whatever it's a modified server or not. Dual or single gun exos; it's the same.
The only counter at the B315 time was an Onos + Gorge duo. The Onos is the meat shield while the gorge is biling from behind. Now it's not possible anymore. Onos are fragile and cannot be useful anymore as a shield. FYI a onos is always needed with 2 upgrades to minimize risks on those servers. so it's not cheap. It goes up to 62 + 8 + 8... Not that cheap.
The gorges could do it alone would you say. Wrong. The gorge can actually kill those exos but at the expense of their lives and only to delay the inevitable. Simply because the marine can buy it back. So basically the game enters some kind of brief pause. But everybody knows what happens next.
I've gone through games where i killed more than the marine top player and still loose. It's like a siege. The progression is slow and requires less organization for marines. I see marines ejecting and repairing themselves their exos while the other exos make a front line. This would have not happen in B315.
Now we go through games that are insane. I've seen 5 successful rushes on different heavily guarded marine base, growing hive fast; only to see all that fall into ruins hive after hive. The marine don't even care as they're using this cheap tactic (exos). I mean we do that kind of rush on public server (noticeable to say the least). Aliens use better teamwork and still loose. I would never be like that on b315.
The onosplosion was necessary to unlock the 3rd part of the game. Otherwise it would have been marines win 100%. Unless a cheap tunnel pops up would say a bad tong. But non the less. it was the sign the marines couldn't organize properly to finish it. And that was fair to the alien. This is a res based game after all. Attack res not the players.
I think this should have been tested on large server. In this environment you can see quite clearly what is "not enough" and what is "too much". Any imbalance thing is exploited to the extreme.
Right now it's: Rush everywhere, buy exos, win, end of story. The only times i see marine loose is when they loose every early engagements (at least the most important ones.). Let's just say alien can't get a Onos up before the marines surrender.
I always think that making the game too easy for the marines will never get player retention any better. Those rookies clearly see they get cheap win. Therefore they don't go alien and miss the whole point of this game.
PS: those Onos who solo everything aren't the one to consider in this matter. I got a good computer, good connection. I wouldn't dare going in front of 3 LMGs A1/W1. It's suicide when you play like everyone should (the proper equipment).
IIRC, it can chomp down structures faster than a skulk and has a much better escape on top of that. You want to buff it further?
@Vetinari YOUR lerk needs to do enough structure damage then
That would be way easier if friendly fire was enabled