Hard to place alien cysts as commander, logic seems to get confused when your placing at a different depth than the alien chair (summit - alien start).
Upgraded fade is impossible to kill now for some reason, waaay to much energy, they can attack forever.
Played 2 games (well 3 but one of them the aliens had no come for 90% of the game, so I didn't count it). Won one, lost one. The one we won was pretty much sheer luck, skulk went in and attacked as Marines were trying to brute force DC (which I don't like the fact you renamed it, I preferred it when the room was SA, it's like a millisecond faster to type). So the base was pretty much undefended, the com activated bacon, but by that time 2 fades a gorge a lerk and 3 skulks had invaded and took out the CC.
The losing game, the Marines just spammed FLAMMENWERFERs and GLs and because skulks are so weak even the farthest reaches of grenade explosions seem to keep them now. And if they miss, FLAMMENWERFER will kill them in 3 seconds, half that if there are 2 FLAMMENWERFERs (which in this particular case, there was 2... and 3 GLs and I think 1 shotgun guy too). So yeah, we had grenades pouring in, eggs were dying too because they're so close to the Hive, so barely anyone spawned and half of those died immediately after from the grenades. Their commander was keeping them WELL supplied. There was a desperate attempt to draw pressure off by attacking MS but by the time we had the forces to back up such an attack it was far too late. Watched the Hive go down in spectator mode. I almost wept... manly tears of course.
Technical aspects, the game runs smoother much more but when it does hitch, it does so twice as hard. All the hitches I got were at least half a second (which is a lot in real terms), skulk hitreg seems a bit iffy now too. I was getting 6 or 7 hits clientside but my opponents were reporting nothing, even when stationary sometimes. My lag was bad but not THAT bad only 170ms.
FLAMMENWERFER needs nerfing back to 183 levels, it feels like it's almost back at 178 (I think it was) levels where; when they come out, it basically means game over for aliens. Fades were a sort-of counter to them before, but even Fades seem to fall pray to the FLAMMENWERFER in a matter of seconds now. This problem is exacerbated by the epic spawn nerfs. Which I personally feel weren't needed, and if they were, it seems like a bit of an overkill. It feels like an eternity waiting to respawn, plus there is no indication the bun has baked.
Shade is a neat addition, but the shade effect is a bit hardcore, it might start giving me a headache with prolonged exposure. Tone it down a tad please.
Pustules need to be reverted to 183 logic too. ###### takes me like 3 tries per cyst just to place them. Makes expanding tedious.
Fades seem damn near invincible. A single round went on for two hours only because fades would not die to infantry fire. All other aliens died readily. Fades, even against two flamethrowers, a shotgun, and a turret seemed to be untouchable with one-hit kills on fully-upgraded marines. One fade went damn near 90:0 against the whole marines team. He died readily as skulk.
twilitebluebug stalkerJoin Date: 2003-02-04Member: 13116Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
edited August 2011
Shade is awesome! I also love the smoother animations and the return of the Bacon.
The Camouflage shader effect looks really cool, but is a little tough on the eye.
I feel that the speed check on remaining Camo could be tweaked to be more forgiving, as I break stealth from walking on bumps and in pits on the ground all the time. It is also impossible for Skulks to walk off walls without breaking stealth, due to the stickiness. Walk animation under camouflage is shown as running (only cosmetic).
I was under the impression that the Observatory is suppose to detect cloaked aliens, even in its passive state. That does not appear to be working yet. It is too easy to sneak into, and hide in Marine bases right now.
Fades are a lot deadlier late game, after the melee upgrade bug fix. Lerks, on the other hand, feel too weak late game. I would definitely like to have Spike as a hit scan weapon, simply because of the huge hit projectile spikes have on my system's performance. My FPS falls to around 10-20 when I'm being hailed by Lerk spikes.
matsoMaster of PatchesJoin Date: 2002-11-05Member: 7000Members, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, Squad Five Gold, Reinforced - Shadow, NS2 Community Developer
There is a "limit cyst placement by path length instead of radius" ticket. It might have snuck in below the change-log radar.
<!--quoteo(post=1867715:date=Aug 9 2011, 08:37 AM:name=matso)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (matso @ Aug 9 2011, 08:37 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1867715"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->There is a "limit cyst placement by path length instead of radius" ticket. It might have snuck in below the change-log radar.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Clarify?
Theres a bug with the egg. Skulks can bite from the egg before they spawn. I was very close to the egg trying to shotgun it but the player in the egg somehow bit me while in the egg state and hatched 1 second later. Needs fixing.
<!--quoteo(post=1867715:date=Aug 9 2011, 05:37 PM:name=matso)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (matso @ Aug 9 2011, 05:37 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1867715"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->There is a "limit cyst placement by path length instead of radius" ticket. It might have snuck in below the change-log radar.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->Bad change needs to go back to how it was in 183 that was very slick...
feedback + 1) shade is really interesting. nice effect as with beacon and the decepticons disguised as ip's. 2) animations are much smoother now and its easier to hit stuff 3) Cyst change has slowed down alien economy and made early marine game less fragile. I was a doubter of the skulk nerf, but it seems to have also opened marine play by giving them a greater ability to compete for res early game 4) much higher opportunity costs of sentries now 5) new changes on summit are awesome! nice one psykoman
- 1) Cyst placement has gone back to being really unintuitive and a pain in the ass to do. Maybe remove the area circles and use lines to show ui feedback on cyst placement if your going to go down the LOS route. 2) All/most building placement is really finicky and the ghost placement flickers in and out all over the place. e.g. Need to have cursor in very specific spots to place. 3) Fade might be a bit too strong now that it scales with melee upgrades? melee 3 fade will 2 swipe armour 3 marine. I feel like it should atleast be something like 2 swipes leaves you on 10hp. 4) I feel like whip should bind a hive. There should be a tradeoff in getting shade and cloak. Ability to get cloak + 2 bite skulks very early might need tuning? With crag it wasnt a problem not having whip binded because crag was overall useless waste of early game res but shade changes things i think.
<!--quoteo(post=1867723:date=Aug 9 2011, 06:26 PM:name=Asraniel)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Asraniel @ Aug 9 2011, 06:26 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1867723"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->the cysts do not need line of sight. But the path length between 2 cysts is considered. So you can build around walls, but not as far as before.
Now perhaps the path length is too short, but its not a bug in itself.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Oh i see i guess the problem is its still using the old radius graphic so its very miss leading and confusing...
1. most times the alien commander said he can not build cysts. 2. the peformence: <img src="http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/4438/peformence.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> I don't remember that poor fps in other versions. I mean i got a quad core cpu and 4 gb of ram also a Sapphire Radeon HD 6850, 1GB GDDR5. Sure its a beta, but my feeling was the other versions run smoother.
pros + I love the new cloaking! +.. and also the effects from the alien perspective +..and also the effects from the alien perspective if they have aliensight on. this might force the players to switch it off sometimes. + shade design is awesome + muffled sounds, even affect the voice com (makes it more realistic) + now sounds + skulk is a little weaker, which is good. + flamer does more damage now + distress beacon + distress beacon sound + new summit design + I noticed new sounds for IP and Armslap (if you finish building)
cons - fades are still to hard to kill for marines. maybe they need the 20dmg shotgun back - it is pretty hard now to place a structure as marinecommander and as aliencommander. you have to be dead center to a certain spot to build something. .. at least in summit. - infestation is back to LOS again :-/ - currently the game is "deny the 2nd hive for the aliens".. if the marines succeed they will win, if the aliens manage to drop a 2nd hive and get the 2nd hive tech, they will win. (most of the time) - observatory should uncloak aliens nearby.. but it doesn't. or is it intended not to uncloak aliens to prevent stalemates? At least make the uncloak radius like the fury radius of the whip. not that big but it should be enough to use it to stop the aliens from running around in the base without getting noticed. <img src="http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/2655/2011080900001.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
btw I noticed that the drifter lost its attack abbility ... or did it never had one? The mac is still able to attack things (I killed a skulk with it *yay*)
I love the new patch btw, and looking forward to the next one :-)
Just fooled around a bit, and was surprised that walking while camouflaged actually works, making it probably a bit too useful. As I didn't really test the mechanics itself, please tell me you aren't completely invisible then... some sort of blured shader (yeah think predator, what else) which is hard to distinguish in the dark should do, and dependant on the light reveals it to a vigilant marine, making flashlight even more useful (with uber awesome reflection effects if you plase). =p
Was some hours ago, but that's what I found: Cysts have been mentioned often enough...^^ Mature Shade isn't an upgrade but a spammable new object (go figure). The cloaking particles make sense, but are annoying when camouflaged.
SintJoin Date: 2007-01-09Member: 59540Members, Squad Five Blue
Good: - feels lot smoother. Shooting aliens never been this easy. - shade
Not so good: - placing structures as commander gets on your nerves pretty fast. And makes comming frustrating. - shade looks nice but also looks bit too large - observatory range is too small, seems to be same with scan. - unable to see/hear aliens attacking base as commander - alien eggs still spawn always in same order, should be random.
pSyk0mAnNerdish by NatureGermanyJoin Date: 2003-08-07Member: 19166Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Silver, NS2 Community Developer
Here is the missing Summit Changelog: -Moved MS, Ventilation, Flight Control and the weldable door slightly away from the rest of the map (~128 units; Range between door and Crossroads node > Siege range) -Changed location Surface Access to Data Core -Moved res node in Data Core (can't siege node from Pipe Junction any longer, removes focus from alien entrance in case of marine lockdown, adds slight downside to hive expansion without making it harder to defend/control) -Improved Flight Control (more space around node, visual improvements and cleaned up messy geometry) -Added a little hiding vent in Heliport (helps to defend possible hive, but easy to control by marines, if they control the room) -Extended Heliport location to the hallway coming from Flight Control (more benefit from unpowered Heliport for aliens) -Fixed geometry blocking vents
<!--quoteo(post=1867672:date=Aug 9 2011, 04:45 AM:name=tyrael64)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (tyrael64 @ Aug 9 2011, 04:45 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1867672"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->something is wrong, heliport at summit in that area the fps drop to 0 and I can not move anymore
occurs when r_mt = false !!!!!!!!!!!!!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Just checked the map. There is nothing there in the editor, but behind that door in the void is the point 0;0;0 That's the point you can sometimes hear (drifter) sounds coming from and judging from that screenshot with the bright light it seems the engine is spawning light entities there (maybe even shadow casting ones) which cause fps meltdown.
<!--quoteo(post=1867746:date=Aug 9 2011, 12:30 PM:name=Price)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Price @ Aug 9 2011, 12:30 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1867746"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->2 things are not very good.
1. most times the alien commander said he can not build cysts. 2. the peformence: <img src="http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/4438/peformence.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> I don't remember that poor fps in other versions. I mean i got a quad core cpu and 4 gb of ram also a Sapphire Radeon HD 6850, 1GB GDDR5. Sure its a beta, but my feeling was the other versions run smoother.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Summit usally has 1000-2000 draw calls when moving around. As soon as occlusion culling issues appear, you can see a higher number like in your screenshot almost 5000. That means you render a good part of the whole map. This sometimes happens, depending on how and where you start in the map, wether you go comm immediatly and wether you see outside the map (spectator, gestating, lag after joining team while hovering in the void). Sometimes it helps to navigate a good part of the map to bring it back to normal, other times you have to restart ns2. In general, anytime you see outside the map or go comm these issues can appear and get worse or better after a while.
building was changed to try and prevent commanders for both sides from manipulating the map placement of buildings yes i agree it needs to be worked on but it is the same for all buildings dont complain as now you cannot place outside of the map or in places you should not place buildings. i am sure they will try and fix it so there is more option when placing structures but for now it looks like it follows the pathing system for valid placement of buildings.
balance is much better in mid to end games now. but beginning game still lacks as skulk rush is still a very effective move. tram really needs the fix for this as skulk rush is too good of an option in that map.
Really dislike los based cyst placement, it feels like a bug especially with the gui circle for placement giving bad information to the user. If you are going to make cysts los, please go the way of starcraft 2 tumor placement and make it such that the next cyst is built off a completed one and they must be scanned to be detected and destroyed. They are already extremely fragile and having to use so much hive energy to place so many more of them with this system makes it a rather big nerf to aliens. The alien "you are cloaked" shader seems too disorientating and distracting with the screen so washed out, maybe tone it down a bit.
<!--quoteo(post=1867785:date=Aug 9 2011, 09:45 AM:name=[R8]DJBourgeoisie)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE ([R8]DJBourgeoisie @ Aug 9 2011, 09:45 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1867785"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> Really dislike los based cyst placement, it feels like a bug especially with the gui circle for placement giving bad information to the user. If you are going to make cysts los, please go the way of starcraft 2 tumor placement and make it such that the next cyst is built off a completed one and they must be scanned to be detected and destroyed. They are already extremely fragile and having to use so much hive energy to place so many more of them with this system makes it a rather big nerf to aliens. The alien "you are cloaked" shader seems too disorientating and distracting with the screen so washed out, maybe tone it down a bit.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> +2, you worded this perfectly and made some acceptable suggestions.
<!--quoteo(post=1867765:date=Aug 9 2011, 07:29 AM:name=SteelBlade)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (SteelBlade @ Aug 9 2011, 07:29 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1867765"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Still nothing to fix the endless stalemates :/<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I think this is the biggest issue in the game right now. Devs should take an hour to hop anonymously into a pub and watch what happens as a spectator.
My belief is that there are two main reasons for the stalemates:
1. Aliens have no effective way of taking out turrets. UWE seems to be pegging the lerk as the class that can quickly and easily take down structures. My suggestion would be to increase the spike range so that sneaky lerks can have more late-game use (instead of everyone going fade and gorge). I would also suggest placing turret and hydra restrictions to avoid spamming farms, which impact performance and cause massive headaches to overcome for the opposing team.
2. Fade is damn-near impossible to kill. You have a class that has a lot of health, a decent amount of armor, causes substantial melee damage, and can disappear immediately. Something needs to be done, whether it be an increase in close-range shotgun damage, a slight reduction in the fade's armor, or creating a blink cooldown to at least give marines the chance to shoot a fade. Once two hives are up and protected, they almost never go down, even against full marine tech.
first of all where did you see that cysts are los? the placement is not easy any more true but i dont think they went back to los. they follow the same rules as building placement. except has to be within range of another cyst.
Comments
Upgraded fade is impossible to kill now for some reason, waaay to much energy, they can attack forever.
The losing game, the Marines just spammed FLAMMENWERFERs and GLs and because skulks are so weak even the farthest reaches of grenade explosions seem to keep them now. And if they miss, FLAMMENWERFER will kill them in 3 seconds, half that if there are 2 FLAMMENWERFERs (which in this particular case, there was 2... and 3 GLs and I think 1 shotgun guy too). So yeah, we had grenades pouring in, eggs were dying too because they're so close to the Hive, so barely anyone spawned and half of those died immediately after from the grenades. Their commander was keeping them WELL supplied. There was a desperate attempt to draw pressure off by attacking MS but by the time we had the forces to back up such an attack it was far too late. Watched the Hive go down in spectator mode. I almost wept... manly tears of course.
Technical aspects, the game runs smoother much more but when it does hitch, it does so twice as hard. All the hitches I got were at least half a second (which is a lot in real terms), skulk hitreg seems a bit iffy now too. I was getting 6 or 7 hits clientside but my opponents were reporting nothing, even when stationary sometimes. My lag was bad but not THAT bad only 170ms.
FLAMMENWERFER needs nerfing back to 183 levels, it feels like it's almost back at 178 (I think it was) levels where; when they come out, it basically means game over for aliens. Fades were a sort-of counter to them before, but even Fades seem to fall pray to the FLAMMENWERFER in a matter of seconds now. This problem is exacerbated by the epic spawn nerfs. Which I personally feel weren't needed, and if they were, it seems like a bit of an overkill. It feels like an eternity waiting to respawn, plus there is no indication the bun has baked.
Shade is a neat addition, but the shade effect is a bit hardcore, it might start giving me a headache with prolonged exposure. Tone it down a tad please.
Pustules need to be reverted to 183 logic too. ###### takes me like 3 tries per cyst just to place them. Makes expanding tedious.
The Camouflage shader effect looks really cool, but is a little tough on the eye.
I feel that the speed check on remaining Camo could be tweaked to be more forgiving, as I break stealth from walking on bumps and in pits on the ground all the time. It is also impossible for Skulks to walk off walls without breaking stealth, due to the stickiness. Walk animation under camouflage is shown as running (only cosmetic).
I was under the impression that the Observatory is suppose to detect cloaked aliens, even in its passive state. That does not appear to be working yet. It is too easy to sneak into, and hide in Marine bases right now.
Fades are a lot deadlier late game, after the melee upgrade bug fix. Lerks, on the other hand, feel too weak late game. I would definitely like to have Spike as a hit scan weapon, simply because of the huge hit projectile spikes have on my system's performance. My FPS falls to around 10-20 when I'm being hailed by Lerk spikes.
Clarify?
But the path length between 2 cysts is considered. So you can build around walls, but not as far as before.
Now perhaps the path length is too short, but its not a bug in itself.
+
1) shade is really interesting. nice effect as with beacon and the decepticons disguised as ip's.
2) animations are much smoother now and its easier to hit stuff
3) Cyst change has slowed down alien economy and made early marine game less fragile. I was a doubter of the skulk nerf, but it seems to have also opened marine play by giving them a greater ability to compete for res early game
4) much higher opportunity costs of sentries now
5) new changes on summit are awesome! nice one psykoman
-
1) Cyst placement has gone back to being really unintuitive and a pain in the ass to do. Maybe remove the area circles and use lines to show ui feedback on cyst placement if your going to go down the LOS route.
2) All/most building placement is really finicky and the ghost placement flickers in and out all over the place. e.g. Need to have cursor in very specific spots to place.
3) Fade might be a bit too strong now that it scales with melee upgrades? melee 3 fade will 2 swipe armour 3 marine. I feel like it should atleast be something like 2 swipes leaves you on 10hp.
4) I feel like whip should bind a hive. There should be a tradeoff in getting shade and cloak. Ability to get cloak + 2 bite skulks very early might need tuning? With crag it wasnt a problem not having whip binded because crag was overall useless waste of early game res but shade changes things i think.
But the path length between 2 cysts is considered. So you can build around walls, but not as far as before.
Now perhaps the path length is too short, but its not a bug in itself.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Oh i see i guess the problem is its still using the old radius graphic so its very miss leading and confusing...
1. most times the alien commander said he can not build cysts.
2. the peformence:
<img src="http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/4438/peformence.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
I don't remember that poor fps in other versions.
I mean i got a quad core cpu and 4 gb of ram also a Sapphire Radeon HD 6850, 1GB GDDR5.
Sure its a beta, but my feeling was the other versions run smoother.
pros
+ I love the new cloaking!
+.. and also the effects from the alien perspective
+..and also the effects from the alien perspective if they have aliensight on. this might force the players to switch it off sometimes.
+ shade design is awesome
+ muffled sounds, even affect the voice com (makes it more realistic)
+ now sounds
+ skulk is a little weaker, which is good.
+ flamer does more damage now
+ distress beacon + distress beacon sound
+ new summit design
+ I noticed new sounds for IP and Armslap (if you finish building)
cons
- fades are still to hard to kill for marines. maybe they need the 20dmg shotgun back
- it is pretty hard now to place a structure as marinecommander and as aliencommander. you have to be dead center to a certain spot to build something. .. at least in summit.
- infestation is back to LOS again :-/
- currently the game is "deny the 2nd hive for the aliens".. if the marines succeed they will win, if the aliens manage to drop a 2nd hive and get the 2nd hive tech, they will win. (most of the time)
- observatory should uncloak aliens nearby.. but it doesn't. or is it intended not to uncloak aliens to prevent stalemates? At least make the uncloak radius like the fury radius of the whip. not that big but it should be enough to use it to stop the aliens from running around in the base without getting noticed.
<img src="http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/2655/2011080900001.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
btw I noticed that the drifter lost its attack abbility ... or did it never had one? The mac is still able to attack things (I killed a skulk with it *yay*)
I love the new patch btw, and looking forward to the next one :-)
As I didn't really test the mechanics itself, please tell me you aren't completely invisible then... some sort of blured shader (yeah think predator, what else) which is hard to distinguish in the dark should do, and dependant on the light reveals it to a vigilant marine, making flashlight even more useful (with uber awesome reflection effects if you plase). =p
Was some hours ago, but that's what I found:
Cysts have been mentioned often enough...^^
Mature Shade isn't an upgrade but a spammable new object (go figure).
The cloaking particles make sense, but are annoying when camouflaged.
Fade to 20 armor, do it. =p
- feels lot smoother. Shooting aliens never been this easy.
- shade
Not so good:
- placing structures as commander gets on your nerves pretty fast. And makes comming frustrating.
- shade looks nice but also looks bit too large
- observatory range is too small, seems to be same with scan.
- unable to see/hear aliens attacking base as commander
- alien eggs still spawn always in same order, should be random.
-Moved MS, Ventilation, Flight Control and the weldable door slightly away from the rest of the map (~128 units; Range between door and Crossroads node > Siege range)
-Changed location Surface Access to Data Core
-Moved res node in Data Core (can't siege node from Pipe Junction any longer, removes focus from alien entrance in case of marine lockdown, adds slight downside to hive expansion without making it harder to defend/control)
-Improved Flight Control (more space around node, visual improvements and cleaned up messy geometry)
-Added a little hiding vent in Heliport (helps to defend possible hive, but easy to control by marines, if they control the room)
-Extended Heliport location to the hallway coming from Flight Control (more benefit from unpowered Heliport for aliens)
-Fixed geometry blocking vents
<!--quoteo(post=1867672:date=Aug 9 2011, 04:45 AM:name=tyrael64)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (tyrael64 @ Aug 9 2011, 04:45 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1867672"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->something is wrong, heliport at summit in that area the fps drop to 0 and I can not move anymore
<a href="http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/268/2011080800001n.jpg/" target="_blank"><img src="http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/7668/2011080800001n.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a>
occurs when r_mt = false !!!!!!!!!!!!!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Just checked the map. There is nothing there in the editor, but behind that door in the void is the point 0;0;0
That's the point you can sometimes hear (drifter) sounds coming from and judging from that screenshot with the bright light it seems the engine is spawning light entities there (maybe even shadow casting ones) which cause fps meltdown.
<!--quoteo(post=1867746:date=Aug 9 2011, 12:30 PM:name=Price)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Price @ Aug 9 2011, 12:30 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1867746"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->2 things are not very good.
1. most times the alien commander said he can not build cysts.
2. the peformence:
<img src="http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/4438/peformence.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
I don't remember that poor fps in other versions.
I mean i got a quad core cpu and 4 gb of ram also a Sapphire Radeon HD 6850, 1GB GDDR5.
Sure its a beta, but my feeling was the other versions run smoother.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Summit usally has 1000-2000 draw calls when moving around.
As soon as occlusion culling issues appear, you can see a higher number like in your screenshot almost 5000.
That means you render a good part of the whole map. This sometimes happens, depending on how and where you start in the map, wether you go comm immediatly and wether you see outside the map (spectator, gestating, lag after joining team while hovering in the void).
Sometimes it helps to navigate a good part of the map to bring it back to normal, other times you have to restart ns2.
In general, anytime you see outside the map or go comm these issues can appear and get worse or better after a while.
balance is much better in mid to end games now. but beginning game still lacks as skulk rush is still a very effective move. tram really needs the fix for this as skulk rush is too good of an option in that map.
Really dislike los based cyst placement, it feels like a bug especially with the gui circle for placement giving bad information to the user. If you are going to make cysts los, please go the way of starcraft 2 tumor placement and make it such that the next cyst is built off a completed one and they must be scanned to be detected and destroyed. They are already extremely fragile and having to use so much hive energy to place so many more of them with this system makes it a rather big nerf to aliens. The alien "you are cloaked" shader seems too disorientating and distracting with the screen so washed out, maybe tone it down a bit.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
+2, you worded this perfectly and made some acceptable suggestions.
I think this is the biggest issue in the game right now. Devs should take an hour to hop anonymously into a pub and watch what happens as a spectator.
My belief is that there are two main reasons for the stalemates:
1. Aliens have no effective way of taking out turrets. UWE seems to be pegging the lerk as the class that can quickly and easily take down structures. My suggestion would be to increase the spike range so that sneaky lerks can have more late-game use (instead of everyone going fade and gorge). I would also suggest placing turret and hydra restrictions to avoid spamming farms, which impact performance and cause massive headaches to overcome for the opposing team.
2. Fade is damn-near impossible to kill. You have a class that has a lot of health, a decent amount of armor, causes substantial melee damage, and can disappear immediately. Something needs to be done, whether it be an increase in close-range shotgun damage, a slight reduction in the fade's armor, or creating a blink cooldown to at least give marines the chance to shoot a fade. Once two hives are up and protected, they almost never go down, even against full marine tech.
I realy like the shade, the new design is good.