My 2.0 Review
TacOne
Join Date: 2002-11-05 Member: 7070Members
Join Date: 2002-11-05 Member: 7070Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Mines, All mines</div> Okay. This review will probably not be as in depth and detail as many others, but what the heck.
And I havent commed anything yet, FYI.
The new graphical effects are great (specially with mp_decals at 30000)
I really like the new crosshairs and the dynamic lightning.
The new sounds are great.
(I feel its kinda hard to write details, but is it really neccesary?)
The new gameplay changes ROCKS!
For aliens in 1.x it was always Defence, Movement, Sensory and the Fade was the general game ender.
Now I see sensory going up first a lot with all kinds of aliens near the end game.
For marines it was almost always Jetpacks and HMGs as fast as possible. Now I see more Heavy armor than JPs, and a little more GLs (New GL rocks, btw)
The games seem to last longer than before, even though it was advertised to be shorter games, but imo this is a change for the better.
[edit2] Almost forgot: The new Marine minimap! Flayra said he possibly would do something about the minimap, but this was beyond my wildest expectations. Its much easier to move around and team up. [/edit]
Now, in spite of the glorious efforts of Flayra and the dev team, there are some down points, which will be listed below.
The most annoying "downside" is (as many others have noted) Devour and Redemption.
Redemption in general is, in my opinion, a little overpowered. Ive seen one, ONE onos getting killed if he had redemption.
And with devour its almost impossible to save the poor HA/GL marine that was stunned and eaten.
[edit] I do not mean this as a balance suggestion or something like that, its just my opinion [/edit]
Although its much less frequent, players are still getting stuck in the map and in buildings dropped on top of them.
Last is a little bug with the GL. Its not a biggie, but it can be annoying: When you have three or fewer grenades in reserve and the gun is empty, you do the full four round reload animation.
Okay, review complete.
Overall score from a scale from great to lousy: Friggin Brilliant! <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
And I havent commed anything yet, FYI.
The new graphical effects are great (specially with mp_decals at 30000)
I really like the new crosshairs and the dynamic lightning.
The new sounds are great.
(I feel its kinda hard to write details, but is it really neccesary?)
The new gameplay changes ROCKS!
For aliens in 1.x it was always Defence, Movement, Sensory and the Fade was the general game ender.
Now I see sensory going up first a lot with all kinds of aliens near the end game.
For marines it was almost always Jetpacks and HMGs as fast as possible. Now I see more Heavy armor than JPs, and a little more GLs (New GL rocks, btw)
The games seem to last longer than before, even though it was advertised to be shorter games, but imo this is a change for the better.
[edit2] Almost forgot: The new Marine minimap! Flayra said he possibly would do something about the minimap, but this was beyond my wildest expectations. Its much easier to move around and team up. [/edit]
Now, in spite of the glorious efforts of Flayra and the dev team, there are some down points, which will be listed below.
The most annoying "downside" is (as many others have noted) Devour and Redemption.
Redemption in general is, in my opinion, a little overpowered. Ive seen one, ONE onos getting killed if he had redemption.
And with devour its almost impossible to save the poor HA/GL marine that was stunned and eaten.
[edit] I do not mean this as a balance suggestion or something like that, its just my opinion [/edit]
Although its much less frequent, players are still getting stuck in the map and in buildings dropped on top of them.
Last is a little bug with the GL. Its not a biggie, but it can be annoying: When you have three or fewer grenades in reserve and the gun is empty, you do the full four round reload animation.
Okay, review complete.
Overall score from a scale from great to lousy: Friggin Brilliant! <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
Comments
The new commander mode is ingenius. Hotgroups, nicer menu, and the mini-map system makes commanding ALOT easier. Its great to see "Base is Under Attack", and then get a prompt on the mini-map for where exactly your base is getting chomped.
I think marines need to learn the ammo and health requests though. The system is great, but I see very few marines actually using the call out for a medpack here and there. Given the new maps, this is quite the pain. Message to marines: use your call outs for health and ammo. Makes my job all that easier.
I agree the new Comm interface is lots and lots better.
The new QWERASDFZXCV interface is also a streak of pure genious.
Redemption in general is, in my opinion, a little overpowered. Ive seen one, ONE onos getting killed if he had redemption.
And with devour its almost impossible to save the poor HA/GL marine that was stunned and eaten. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
The game's been out for three day's, have you ever tried playing as a redemption Onos?
Redemption Onos doe's not make you win a game.
Maps: Lost and mineshaft are too dark. Can't see a thing and the weird architecture is very annoying for skulks and onos (especially for mineshaft). In one part of mineshaft this wall is completely black! I ran into it and was like WTH!? Maybe its just me.
Marines: Perfect. But JPs costing 15 is a rip off and its a jumppack. I sometimes get cursed at if I give someone a JP! <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> As comm I only use it for: desperate quick reinforcements to my HA group and using it to counter mass onos (which happens a lot). As an evasive tool: A+. As a way to transport troops: -C. Onos counter: -F (in corridors) and B+ (open space).
Oh and commander mode is AWESOME. When I got in the chair it was like... whoa very streamlined. Now all you need to do is add in arrowbutton scrolling.
Aliens: Great. But pheromones is a joke. So sorry to say. Bilebomb range could use some work maybe? We shall see. Metabolize isn't really worth it. Its more of a convenience.
Long endgames are annoying if youre alien trying to end it. But I just think some people need to get their act together instead of going onos all the time and dying 1 by 1.
Take 10 mines or so
Put them all in the same place
Stand the side the onos comes from so to block his view of them
When he comes run away over the mines
Onos doesn't see them til too late
BOOOOOOM! Dead onos and probably dead you. But weren't you going to be devoured anyway?
There is always a way, you just have to use the squishy thing in your head.
<b>Rock!</b>
Oh hell yeah. <b>Hell Yeah!</b> This is too good to be true (literally, a few almost NS-less weeks coming up, damn!). There's so much to say, I'd better start somewhere instead of blabbering incoherently.
I. Kharaa
I'll start with the Kharaa, as they are still (or actually, now even more so) my favourite race.
1. Skulk
The Skulk seems to have gotten both weaker and stronger (as indeed most Kharaa seem to have). The new, faster bite makes close combat a lot easier, but the easier-to-aim-with lmg makes closing the distance harder if you don't rely on stealth. The model rotation makes the Skulk even more believable as these terrible things with pointy things (no more sticking out from walls at a 90° angle, yay!!), and makes it harder to detect. A 1.x Skulk protruding from the wall like a medieval gargoyle was hard to miss, but a 2.0 beast is quite a different thing. Good job!
I grieve for the parasite's ability to toggle switches, but I agree that the Skulk's remote control was a little unfair. The new strafing will take some getting used to, but as far as I can see it is merely an adjustment, not a nerf. We'll soon learn to Skulk properly again, and then I think we will be even more dangerous.
2. Gorge
The Gorge is now a more widespread evolution, as more than one is needed to win the game. Its combat abilities haven't changed too much (although SCs can make for some cool ambushes that give the Gorge a better chance). Most notable is bilebomb, as the Gorge can now tear down structures with speed and little risk (until the reinforcements arrive and chase it all over the map). It seems strange that with individual res-for-kills and equal sharing of resources, the Gorge has the lowest income of all the races. This is somewhat offset by Skulks saving res and then going Gorge at a hundred res and placing a hive+defenses all at once. More Gorges around the map mean more healing for the other classes, too.
3. Lerk
Sorry, gotta say it again: <b>Aww, Hell Yeah!</b> This is the Lerk I've always wanted. Screw bite, this is so much better. Spikes do less damage but also use less energy, meaning you can spike for quite some time before running out of stamina. Spores are just great. Harassment missions just got fun. Throwing a few spores into the marine base, then hightailing it out is a surefire way to **** the poor humans off. And the Lerk isn't so "paper-thin" as I'd feared, in fact, as long as I stay out of close range my survival rate is pretty high. I'm just waiting for marines to start ambushing those pesky flyers, as the Lerk lacks the ability to deal a lot of damage quickly. Get caught at close range and it's game over for you. Being able to shoot umbra is nice, although the clouds are short-lived. Allows you to help while staying out of harms way.
4. Fade
Uhm, what can I say? The Fade is a completely new experience. I suppose you use blink to get in close, slash those marines, then blink away again (and with blink, the Fade suddenly became the fastest lifeform of them all). Blink is hard to control (I fear the class is gonna be neglected in favor of the easier-to-learn Onos), but I'm sure it will be a great ability with practice. Metabolise is fine, as the Fade takes damage often, and thus needs frequent "repairs".
5. Onos
Sorry, it's happening again: <b>Aww, Hell Yeah!</b> Onos is mad fun. Of course we all knew that, but now we can have mad fun much more often. Devouring marines is just cool (haven't checked if it works with HAs), especially when they start making sullen remarks ("This is the third time in a row you swallow me! There are lots of other juicy marines, you know?"). Stomp is good at stopping marines from bouncing around. Charge is killer. Watch that health though, it dwindles faster than you think!
II. Kharaa Structures
1. Offense Chamber
So much more useful than its 1.x counterpart. No longer a wall with limited firepower (read: a hurdle that must be jumped in order to get at the Gorge behind), they are now a force to be reckoned with.
"What, a Gorge with two OCs? Free Gorge kill!" No longer, soldier! Ignore those OCs and you'll end up a hedgehog. Or a porcupine.
2. Resource Chamber
Not much to say about those. Umm... Protect them! Yeah, that's it. You're lost without 'em.
3. Defense Chamber
Not much to say either. Heals nearby strucures and players. No big changes since 1.x.
4. Motion Chamber
As always, the MC offers upgrades that are useful to all classes (well, silence may not be <b>too</b> useful for an Onos, and adrenaline is not the first choice for Skulks either). Silence is evil, and celerity is good for Gorge getaways. Run ****, rruuuuuunnnn!
5. Hive
Not as "paper-thin" as I'd feared. A Hive doesn't go down quickly unless a sizeable force manages to get in there (and that's <b>your</b> fault, not the game's!). Good job on making the Hives important, but not all-important. The two- and three-hive abilities are so great that everyone wants another hive, but if the marines are low on res, you'll slaughter 'em without too.
6. Sensory Chamber
I've saved these until now because I reckon them to be the star of 2.0. The chamber offers two truly useful upgrades (with pheromones not being all too useful), and cloaks everything in a big radius. A chain of SCs offers aliens the ability to travel great distances completely invisible (SC + Silence = Marine Fear). Once the chamber's novelty wears off, people will start to use other chambers more, but the SC is a keeper in any case (I bet it will lose some of its popularity when marines start to hunt for SCs with scanner sweeps). A great, though not unbalancing, chamber. Stop whining rines, whaddya think the observatory is there for huh?
III. Marine Weapons and Equipment
1. Knife
No changes as far as I can see (or are there new idle animations? Don't think I saw the balancing one before).
2. Pistol
Haven't checked the firerate yet. It still fires as fast as I can click. Gotta bind a key to fire to check. New sounds is great.
3. Light Machine Gun
Neat. No changes to firing rate or damage as far as I know. The lowered model allows for better aiming, definitely a good thing. The sound seems to indicate a higher rate-of-fire, but that doesn't seem to be the case. New sound is good anyway.
4. Shotgun
Faster rate-of-fire makes it a lot easier to use (has damage been lowered to compensate?). Still doesn't see too much use, but I guess that's bound to change as Commanders all around discover what a nifty tool it is. The animation doesn't look graceful now (as it was made for a longer firing delay), but that's trivial.
5. Mines
Not seen used yet. Strange. Go down too easy with bilebomb? <b>Does</b> bilebomb even take 'em down anymore?
6. Welder
New, faster draw animation is swell.
7. Heavy Machine Gun
I like the reduced damage versus buildings. coil and his posse finally got what they wanted I see. Way to go coil!
Because of the uneven clip size, two "turns" of ammo at the armory only give you 124 bullets (half of 125 is 62.5, rounded down is 62, 62 times two is 124). Though strange, this is no big problem. One more "turn" at the armory and you've got your remaining bullets. Possible solution: Double the time it takes to use the armory once, but make it hand out whole clips at a time.
8. Grenade Launcher
In my opinion the GL didn't need change, but I was wrong. The new GL looks really cool. I fully expected it to go through the entire four-round loading animation even if I fired only one round before reloading. What a pleasant surprise to the contrary. My only gripe is that it will go through the entire four-round loading animation even if I only have two grenades left, and I'll do all this loading and still end up with only two bangs in the drum. Oh well, no gamebreaker. <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.natural-selection.org/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->
9. Jetpacks
Thoroughly nerfed. Longer research time, higher cost. They are no longer an all-round benefit, but more of an Onos counter. "Catch me if you can, you silly bloated cow!" Never liked 'em anyway, so thank you!
10. Heavy Armor
Once again, people discover just how much rock HA is. With spore immunity (and no Onos devouring?), high damage absorption and the ability to quickly be repaired, these are the be-all and end-all of the marine tech tree. In the end, taking one of these behemoths down is almost as satisfying as slaughtering an Onos, and almost as hard. The walking sounds are dead on.
IV. Marine Buildings
There's not much to say, so I'll ommit anything that isn't important. It's notable that it takes Lerks a long time to destroy any kind of marine structure.
1. Electrified Resource Towers and Turret Factories
As their main purpose is keeping Skulks away as far as I know, they perform well. They quickly fall to Fades, Onos or bilebombing Gorges, but I figure that's intentional.
2. Sentry Turrets
Much more accurate. One can still be taken out by a Skulk, but if several are around, high-hp lifeforms are required. Good job. Larger turret farms can be dangerous to even Onos. Bring Gorges and/or Lerks.
V. Golden Moments
1. Devouring marines is always fun. Particularly the one that was devoured over and over and over again, as soon as he ventured outside base (in a hopeless quest to kill the two Onos out there. Three vanilla marines do NOT threaten an Onos, let alone two! Nublets). During one particular five-minute period, he must have spent more time inside an Onos than outside. Hilarious.
The same marine found jumping over railings a particularly good way to escape Onos (experience is the best tutor). That is, until he became overconfident and stood right on the other side of the railing, still just inside devour range. *Gulp* He: "WTH???" Me: "Phear m3h six-ph33t tongue of D3WM!" Oh God, I've rarely experienced laughter as so agonizing.
2. Half-running, half-flapping backwards through twisted corridors, sporing as I go, listening to the footsteps of pursuing marines. The final spore kill pictogram and *ugh* *clunk* sound of a marine dying is pure gold.
3. Being saved from the belly of an Onos. "Thank God. Oh, and thank you guys, of course!"
4. SC ambushes. Nuff said.
This about sums it up. My only gripes are with the Skulk parasite (no more switch fun! *sniff*), the strafing (will take a little time getting adjusted to, but then we're good to go) and the slow resource-gain as Gorge (no more getting showered with res).
Yes, this may sound like shameless praise, but 2.0 deserves it. Of course, the jp/hmg rush didn't show up before a couple of month had passed, but I'm not gonna be pessimistic before I see something that looks threatening. I don't wanna start talking about problems until I've had some more experience with them and seen if they are real problems or something that is easily countered.
And why am I typing an essay so long that nobody will read it when I could play instead? **** this, I'm off.
Also, I love sensory, it's just freaky for a marine to see an uncloaked wol, or skulks and gorges coming out of nowhere.
Or as aliens see a marine walk past by and ambush him. I feel like the skulk has been improved abit, it can now easier take down incomming HA (partly SC's fault) you can totally screw them confuzzled <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
*snuggles the lurvly new shotty*
I have even got killed by a single HMG with redemption, so it's not overpowered in my opinion.
And long alien end-games bothered me at first, but isn't really an issue now, as I discovered that teamwork ends it very quick.
And long alien end-games bothered me at first, but isn't really an issue now, as I discovered that teamwork ends it very quick. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
true..
but man.... pub play is getting bad
not the games fault... just the concept of teamwork to cs kiddies
i had like 3 games where it took aliens at least 30 extra minutes JUST to end it
1-2 hour long games are the norm on pubs right now...
<!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif'><!--endemo--> i got to be at work people!
but anyway
imo 2.0 is the best thing in the world
only gripe.. when aliens are clocked, marines still see their names... i guess a bug to get rid of in 2.01 eh..
Atleast I'm having trouble with it..
In team_say, sometimes it works, other times not..
And sometimes it reveals your position in normal chat too (I'm marine and see the aliens location)
I don't think that is too good :S
And I havent commed anything yet, FYI.
The new graphical effects are great (specially with mp_decals at 30000)
I really like the new crosshairs and the dynamic lightning.
The new sounds are great.
(I feel its kinda hard to write details, but is it really neccesary?)
The new gameplay changes ROCKS!
For aliens in 1.x it was always Defence, Movement, Sensory and the Fade was the general game ender.
Now I see sensory going up first a lot with all kinds of aliens near the end game.
For marines it was almost always Jetpacks and HMGs as fast as possible. Now I see more Heavy armor than JPs, and a little more GLs (New GL rocks, btw)
The games seem to last longer than before, even though it was advertised to be shorter games, but imo this is a change for the better.
[edit2] Almost forgot: The new Marine minimap! Flayra said he possibly would do something about the minimap, but this was beyond my wildest expectations. Its much easier to move around and team up. [/edit]
Now, in spite of the glorious efforts of Flayra and the dev team, there are some down points, which will be listed below.
The most annoying "downside" is (as many others have noted) Devour and Redemption.
Redemption in general is, in my opinion, a little overpowered. Ive seen one, ONE onos getting killed if he had redemption.
And with devour its almost impossible to save the poor HA/GL marine that was stunned and eaten.
[edit] I do not mean this as a balance suggestion or something like that, its just my opinion [/edit]
Although its much less frequent, players are still getting stuck in the map and in buildings dropped on top of them.
Last is a little bug with the GL. Its not a biggie, but it can be annoying: When you have three or fewer grenades in reserve and the gun is empty, you do the full four round reload animation.
Okay, review complete.
Overall score from a scale from great to lousy: Friggin Brilliant! <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
No, its not for the better, this is the problem:
Games were said to last shorter, you know they would, they really would, wanna know why games last forever? TURRET FARMING AND UBER OC's. Thats what makes these games take forever.
Ok I know my opinion won't matter to the devs but I"m gonna say it anyway, ALOT of people I've talked to hate the new style of game play, ALOTTA awesome changes with 2.0 but the sad fact is, you don't even need to get 6 RT's to fully tech, this is no fun, there's no strategy, maxing out upgrades used to be like "whao that must be a good comm/team, they took all those RT's and kept them defended and already have max upgrades and HA/HMG." Now if you have max upgrades it barely makes a difference, I heard LMG does less damage, which would be fine if the ugprades dind't suck. They made everything harder tokill even without cara, now noone goes DC's first. I dind't like DC's being first every time but this cloaking crap sucks.
I mean cmon, throw sensories all over the map and the entire map is cloaked ,those things are not easy to find.
Solution - Make the sensory itself visible, only fair way to do it. And also slightly shorten the range of cloaking, I mean the radius is huge.
Then, weaken turrets/OC's. This game is about team work, not turret farming. I have played about 40 games since 2.0 came out, not one, NOT A SINGLE ONE has been without turret farming, since its basically the only way to survive against onos'. Don't say "dish out shotties and HMG's and let your team do it", well for one, if I send my team to take out a hive that leaves base defenseless, even with a few marines 2-3 onos' (not hard to get) would wipe it out, just devour a marine each and boom, base is dead.
HAHA you have no clue how common it is for a base to be left defenseless due to a marine attack, but aliens don't gotta worry about leaving their hives, they just mass OC and sensory around, and if things really get messy they just take a movement and instantly on base defense. Marines need another way to reveal cloaked stuff. Or a better solution, make sensories visable and make moving aliens alot more visable than when they sit still.
They can build observatories or use scan.
What more do you actually want?
Graphics: I HUGELY appreciate the fact that you can see the blood when an enemy gets hit. Makes you feel less helpless, and therefore makes losing less frusterating. The new marine minimap is actually useful now, and the alien minimap is a definite plus. Best change: skulk rotation. Worst change: nothing. I love all of the new graphics. Overall, NS looks waaay more professional than it used to.
Maps: Haven't played them all quite yet, but I like the changes to most of them, and lost and veil are nice maps. Best change: addition of lost and veil. Worst change: the marine spawn in eclipse. While It's not that bad, the aliens in eclipse have good defensive positions, so why not let the marines share the advantage? Skulk rushes are common anyway. Overall: Yep, the new maps are nice.
Marine changes: Electricution is a nice touch. Makes you feel like god in that command chair. <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
Anyway... all of the weapons changes seem to be on the good side. The HMG may be slightly overbalanced, but I guess that's just because I have a tendancy to run into them as skulks and lerks. Everything still has that marine feel to it, which is definitely a good thing. Best change: Hotgroups. Not much to say, it's just great. Worst: I haven't noticed any bad changes here. Overall: just tweaks and changes, nothing bad, so it must be for the better.
Alien changes: here is the meat. This has all of the biggest changes in NS so far. The new alien system promotes use of all of the aliens. I get use out of Lerks now, and also see them more often in games. Only the best will be able to use Onies frequently and stay there. Now, instead of seeing Onos/Fade rushes, you see an Onos backed by several Lerks, Fades, and Skulks. Best change: the new system. Worst change: I'm not really sure if it's really that bad, but you nerfed the Fade a bit too much. I can still use it effectively with a strategy (blink towards victim, use the Q button to switch weapons and tear him to pieces), but I never see fades until acid rockets are available now, and by that time people are using Onies. Overall: very good, I think this was a huge leap in the right direction.