Hard Counters
mATTHEW_KELLY
Join Date: 2003-05-23 Member: 16642Members
Join Date: 2003-05-23 Member: 16642Members
<div class="IPBDescription">for 1.2 and beyond</div> Aight guys, the problem as it stand is that NS, as good as it may be, is simply just a race to get the best techs. From a strategic point of view this is very restrictive and relagates the commander to a button monkey for large chunks of the game. We know this is because the game has no hard counters, so ultimately for every map there is a most leet strategy you can employ. This usually consists of getting HA/HMG/GL.
You cant implement hard counters for weapons as this is a sure fire (no pun intended LOL!!!!!!1) way to make nubbins to go "WTH why cant i hit this fackin bat with a shotgun!!1? *quit*". In other words, they are counter-inuititive.
So ive stumbled on what may well be a way to implement hard counters and add a new strategic depth to NS. Although due to my desperation to get feedback to make sure im not just being a nub i only have one example of what i mean, but you'll get the idea.
Im jumping on a bit of a band wagon i suppose, but at the moment there is a lot of talk of varying the OCs in the beta forum. This got me chinking it would be sweet to have a type of OC that obscures the rines vision by throwing up a goo sprite over the marine's screen. Then i think to myself, well maybe its a tad overpowered they'd be skulk bait for sure and it would make the **** little spike ocs obsolete.
BUT THEN i had a vision, if you will, of a counter for this type of oc. I havent considered the specifics but it would be some kind of leet anti-goo helmet upgrade that left marines laughing in the aliens face when they built this type of oc.
So what if the aliens had a bunch of different ocs? And what if the marines had a bunch of different upgrades to make a particular type of oc useless? Now you may well ask yourself whats stopping the rines from just researching all the upgrades at once? Well i reckon if the first the upgrade researched extremely quickly (this would also prevent a gorge rush with a particular type of chamber) then all the subsequent technologies would take exponentially longer. THe final technology could take 10 minutes to research and cost loads. A similar system could be introduced for the aliens, each subsequent type of oc would cost more than the first one built until building the final type isnt a practical defence against the rines.
This would be a hard counter as any marines trying to rush a hive without leet helmets against the goo-spitting, blinding ocs would surely get owned, useless the skulks were crap beyond redemption.
So this would encourage such tactics as scouting, to see what type of chamber the aliens have built (for all you nubbins not up to date with the beta obs have a range now so you couldnt just scan the hive).
There could also be counter tactics from the aliens, such as building lots of a cheap type of oc, then building more expensive ones closer to the rine base so they get an upgrade to counter the more expensive chamber that the aliens only have a few of. It would make sensory more viable as well (another issue).
I obviously havent thought enough about such a big change but it seems like a pretty good answer to hard counters. Also the devs and community alike would have a whole bunch of fun thinking up wacky chambers for the aliens to use.
Oh yeh - long post.
You cant implement hard counters for weapons as this is a sure fire (no pun intended LOL!!!!!!1) way to make nubbins to go "WTH why cant i hit this fackin bat with a shotgun!!1? *quit*". In other words, they are counter-inuititive.
So ive stumbled on what may well be a way to implement hard counters and add a new strategic depth to NS. Although due to my desperation to get feedback to make sure im not just being a nub i only have one example of what i mean, but you'll get the idea.
Im jumping on a bit of a band wagon i suppose, but at the moment there is a lot of talk of varying the OCs in the beta forum. This got me chinking it would be sweet to have a type of OC that obscures the rines vision by throwing up a goo sprite over the marine's screen. Then i think to myself, well maybe its a tad overpowered they'd be skulk bait for sure and it would make the **** little spike ocs obsolete.
BUT THEN i had a vision, if you will, of a counter for this type of oc. I havent considered the specifics but it would be some kind of leet anti-goo helmet upgrade that left marines laughing in the aliens face when they built this type of oc.
So what if the aliens had a bunch of different ocs? And what if the marines had a bunch of different upgrades to make a particular type of oc useless? Now you may well ask yourself whats stopping the rines from just researching all the upgrades at once? Well i reckon if the first the upgrade researched extremely quickly (this would also prevent a gorge rush with a particular type of chamber) then all the subsequent technologies would take exponentially longer. THe final technology could take 10 minutes to research and cost loads. A similar system could be introduced for the aliens, each subsequent type of oc would cost more than the first one built until building the final type isnt a practical defence against the rines.
This would be a hard counter as any marines trying to rush a hive without leet helmets against the goo-spitting, blinding ocs would surely get owned, useless the skulks were crap beyond redemption.
So this would encourage such tactics as scouting, to see what type of chamber the aliens have built (for all you nubbins not up to date with the beta obs have a range now so you couldnt just scan the hive).
There could also be counter tactics from the aliens, such as building lots of a cheap type of oc, then building more expensive ones closer to the rine base so they get an upgrade to counter the more expensive chamber that the aliens only have a few of. It would make sensory more viable as well (another issue).
I obviously havent thought enough about such a big change but it seems like a pretty good answer to hard counters. Also the devs and community alike would have a whole bunch of fun thinking up wacky chambers for the aliens to use.
Oh yeh - long post.
Comments
Counter for Umbra OC = GL
Counter for Spore OC = GL/HMG
The GL pretty much covers any sort of alien structure out there. But nothing is more fun than rushing a GL rine and watching him blow himself up.
The Obscure chamber could make for interesting bits and would make the "Enhanced Hive Sight" rather useful as you can see rines in the "ink cloud".
Though I think the obscurity will easily be countered with cvars..
Just my 2c
My topic did have a disclaimer!!1
Perhaps the existing chambers could offer support though, sensory would make the wacky new ocs extremely difficult to siege and DCs would make the wacky offence chambers difficult to GL.
The aliens seem more or less fine - a lerk was only 17 res when I last checked.