I recommend not showing the left hand mini-map while the large map is open.
I like the feel of the performance. It's a more playable late stages of the game now.
The inclusion of in-game music really adds to the experience. I would sometimes have NS1 music playing while playing NS2 to fill that void in the experience.
Kharaa highlights + hive-sight effects are really helpful in having marines/aliens pop out more.
I also like the balance decisions regarding Exosuit (can't beacon, only welding can repair it, can't use Phase Gates)
But I still don't like the fact that MAC's have stackable repair rates.
<!--quoteo(post=1968071:date=Aug 29 2012, 11:16 AM:name=inciss)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (inciss @ Aug 29 2012, 11:16 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1968071"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->When Exosuit started to shoot me fps dropped to badly that game freezed untill I died. That happened twice both times as fade.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--quoteo(post=1967808:date=Aug 29 2012, 01:12 AM:name=internetexplorer)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (internetexplorer @ Aug 29 2012, 01:12 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1967808"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Veil is a really faithful remake and seems like a lot of fun (is the southern most hive borrowed from another NS1 map? I swear I recognized it..)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> I noticed that too, I think it's one of the CO maps that has a similar style?
<!--quoteo(post=1967808:date=Aug 29 2012, 12:12 AM:name=internetexplorer)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (internetexplorer @ Aug 29 2012, 12:12 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1967808"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Veil is a really faithful remake and seems like a lot of fun (is the southern most hive borrowed from another NS1 map? I swear I recognized it..)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Co_kestrel has a pretty similar themed marine start. Ns_machina also has a hive with similar kind of cargo forcefield prop, might have been Tau Ceti. Or Mausoleum. Or Angel's Grave, I never get the hives right on that one. Probably the Tau one though.
It's interesting to see how Veil will play out with NS2. I think the NS1 version felt so good partitially because of the momentum and flow the blink and bhop mechanics allowed, I'm not sure how that translates into NS2 gameplay.
Also, I somehow believe Tanith can be translated into any NS version without any issues. No idea how that happens, but it's almost a miracle how well the whole map worked throughout the massive changes NS1 went from 1.0 to 3.2. It's amazing how little Tanith had to change to adapt to the gameplay during all that, all I can remember noticing are some removed doors and some small changes in vent system to prevent JP HMG abuse in 1.04.
<!--quoteo(post=1968170:date=Aug 29 2012, 07:08 AM:name=Align)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Align @ Aug 29 2012, 07:08 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1968170"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I noticed that too, I think it's one of the CO maps that has a similar style?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Its the marine start of co_kestrel iirc. Where the cc was in a pit in the big start and the alien hive room had a vent that lead straight upwards to a cockpit.
Personally I don't think Veil fits NS2. It felt right in NS1, but not this.
I am surprised it actually made it into the official map rotation. If anything it will frighten off new players, as it is so winding I get lost. This is coming from someone who used to play the original.. a lot. I Don't mean to take away the person who put a good job into remaking it though, but it just does not feel as fitting as the other maps.
Summit is playing great, Tram is a hell of a lot better.. Exos are very fun, but I am still a bit unsure about them. Maybe it is just because I am on a crappy PC, but I always find combat starts to get messy in this game. The Exo really doesn't help with this.
When I play other games, I am very tactical in terms of where I position myself in a hallway, etc, but in NS2 it seems to be about spamming 'fire' and jumping around far too much. For me this really takes away the sophistication of combat somewhat. My favourite moments are stalking skulks as a level 1 marine... not jumping around exos with a welder and being in some sort of alien/machine orgy.
after playing several rounds i think the exo armor is quite OP. Of all but one rounds played so far the Marines won, sometimes even after having no active comm for some time at the start. I think exo should be more expensive (like 75/100 instead of 50/75), the way it is now its way too easy to save up to exo armor and get like 5 of it at the time the aliens can affort fades.
Also I think it should be like in NS1 where the game ended when a certain percentage of the players of one team quit to RR. The way it is now you are forced quite frequently to play out games for another 10 minutes that were lost at the very beginning. Today there was a situation where 2 aliens played against 7 marines...
Ok, finally i managed to play a few rounds and i'm literally stunned how much the game has improved with 217. That were the best rounds i had in NS2, yet. And imo the balance is ok. The exo is not a completely overpowered killing machine. There are various tradeoffs and many ways to counter it...
Ok I just encountered something quite hilarious and perhaps quite worrying.
So in comes this heavy, waltzing into the hive. 4 of us skulks jump him, and get to work dismantling his leg parts. He jumps, all the skulks at his ankles fill the recently created void beneath the exo, and he looks down and opens fire. All 4 of us died in like half a second.
I feared the <!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->Exo <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->suit was going to become an OP thing and everybody would be rushing for it! And they did! The first games I played, went totally as alien to just battle this <!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->Exo <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->thing, and lord were devastating (Veil Map) getting closer to those machines were lots of trouble and the only possible way to get close was to wait and ram it, No easy way to confront them directly. We lost 2 games in a row (I kept playing aliens), and at the third game we drafted out a plan to take them out before they develop the <!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->Exo <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->suits.
Advantage I Notice : Marines rushed so hard for <!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->Exo <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->suits that they forgot everything else, and we won a game by just taking them down before they developed them.
The Next Game is where the Cereal business started(Veil Map): -We did a very good job of skulk rushing, as marines in this ma can just capture lots of resource points in no time, so we keep destroying them. Gaining control of half of the map we took a lot of time, enough that the terror came in through the Left side of the map, an <!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->Exo <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->Suit, and for pure luck, a Newbie was using it and was taken down by a single skulk, but still our minds were not in peace. -More <!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->Exo <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->suits were coming for sure, and the marines sure had the North strongly defended and the Right bottom (Pipelines), our great commander made it to get some upgrades as carapace and leap, and from all the sudden, Blink; and then our Fade Rush began. = Fades everywhere! the pipelines had a lot of marines over there defending and our fades just kept blink in and out from Cargo to heal and then attack again, but the best tactic came in when we attacked their North Base like if Everybody in the Alien Team planned to move and attack the North instead! and The Marines Teleport all of their units to the North base and SURPRISE!! Was a trap! Now they left alone Pipelines and an <!--coloro:#0000FF--><span style="color:#0000FF"><!--/coloro-->Onos <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->and several fades rushed to crush everything in there, Some marines made it back, flamethrowers... Totally dark cause no power, a phase-gate near but then shut it down, they lost Pipelines.
Then the <!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->Exo <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->suits finally Came:
We lost fades and skulks like cheese when those machines moved from the north to the middle center of the mouth and kept going south, until we got them in a very closed area of the center with the <!--coloro:#0000FF--><span style="color:#0000FF"><!--/coloro-->Onos <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->, George Support, and Skulks killing single marines around. We took down 2 <!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->Exo <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->suits with one <!--coloro:#0000FF--><span style="color:#0000FF"><!--/coloro-->Onos <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->and then a mix of Fades and skulk to take down the Third one. Using Skulks and fades to ungroup the <!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->Exo <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->sure helped, and then the <!--coloro:#0000FF--><span style="color:#0000FF"><!--/coloro-->Onos <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->to take them individually, BUT also removing their marine support which mean a lot for the marines, but once skulks nom noms them hard, <!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->Exo <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->suits alone are pie.
After that nothing was interesting, we just ate their north base, from all the exits possible and won, but fighting the exo suits was so much suspense and excitement cause is almost a time bomb against the aliens, but what we noticed as a group is that they left everything behind cause they wanted the <!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->Exo <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->suits right away. Last but not least, a very good team of Aliens is needed, commander means a lot even if the Wiki says Alien commanders don't need to do much, they must do more, help to focus groups and rush attacks, organize to take down strong units and eradicate marine bases.
In a summary: <!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->Exo <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->suits a bit overpowered, but Marines are making the mistake (in the games I played) they rush for <!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->Exo <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->suit but leave other things behind, Alien Commander must be more vocal as in our game that helped us and lead groups to take down the Marine Forces. So.... is just learning for Alien Team Players to take down this Exo things.
- Performance is significantly better now. I have high hopes for the future.
- Exos are too quiet. For how heavy they seem they're practically ninjas. They've snuck up on my fade a couple times.
- Cannot evolve to gorge in low ceiling vents or I get stuck. Please fix this! Biling from vents is one of my favorite harassment tactics. But awesome work on the spit projectile! It's shaping up nicely.
- I love the dynamic music, but could we get an option to either lower the volume or turn it off? Chewing on a CC I can't hear marines coming. If I stop biting to listen, is that a marine footstep or one of the percussion hits?
- Server filter ala stop loading all these empty servers every time I refresh the list! I like the pickup game idea. Reminds me of L4D lobbies.
- Tutorials are up! Yay! New people, look at them!
- Veil feels like it has a sizable marine advantage. One example: As alien comm it takes me more cysts to get to a res node then the cost of the actual res node itself. Add the Axe marine who comes to chop up my cyst line and that cost quickly piles up. You want upgrades? I have to rebuild my cysts. Unless my team has the skill advantage, I'm practically required to drop the second hive off the bat.
- 1 v 1 Onos vs Exo the marine will tear the alien apart. Gore is slow and apparently stomp doesn't work (and it's three hives anyways). I know it's asymmetry, but it feels strange since it's generally 50 pres(with the 75 pres dualies the onos definitely has no chance) vs 75 pres. I'm getting more bang for my buck as a fade, unless there are at least 2 or 3 oni with gorge support which doesn't often happen in pubs (or in a lot of the competitive videos I see you guys post). In NS1, the onos had to go through a lot of buffing until it basically hit 1000/850 hp/armor (correct me if I'm wrong, it's been awhile). Which seemed like a lot when it appeared back then, but it really made the Onos a fearsome creature rather than the "Support class that needs support" it is right now.
- Speaking of fade I LOVE the forward momentum, even if it's only a little bit. I can't really explain this one. It might be nostalgia, but it just feels like that's closer to how it should be.
I think the patch is great so far, exo is strong but has its distinct disadvantages. That and it means less shotguns (which can be pickupped over and over) and less jps. I'd focus on shotguns and jps more at this point than exo.
I've no idea if there are changes towards shotguns/jetpacks since I didn't get to see them so far. :)
I played the game a lot from build 156, put up with a lot of beta issues and then took a break , only occasionally firing it up to see how its progressing....
... and each new build I get the same thing, crash crash crash.
Yeah ok, may be my rig but all the other stuff seem to be happy with the rig. Yeah ok , beta is beta but so near release you would think it could run a match without crashing on my rig ? More annoying is the feedback dialogue is hidden, and when you escape the crashed game...it vanishes before you can submit a report.
It still lacks any decent means to queue or even spam join to enter a server.... preformance is still pretty lacklustre ( on a 3.2 ghz PhenomII x 6 , GTX580 , 8 gigs RAM , win 7 prem 64bit ). I am starting to despair the game will get stable at this rate, and then the launch excitement dies down, the servers empty and the game dies a slow annoying death. I still dont see any official servers in the EU either, so still trying random servers which may or may not contribute to the performance isssues... and if you rely only on your fans to pay up for the servers at launch... the game will die, choked on the frustration of being unable to get on a server. Ask FatShark (Lead and Gold), ask Uber (UMNC).... both had a popularity boost...both unable to support the demand... both died.
The game itself seemed to be going in the right direction, it looks good and when the performance is keeping up its pretty fluid give or take some issues, but the crashes...
Going to try it some more with some settings off / disabled... verify cache , all that type of things and see how it plays.
Here is my feedback after playing a few games. Nice patch, probably the best patch yet, I had significant performance improvements (especially after dropping my resolution down, I always thought my cpu was the bottleneck but I was wrong...) It feels a lot better now for me now, very playable.
My biggest issue is that I still feel like ns2 punishes me for things I can't avoid. Perhaps this is just the way the game is, but I personally find it highly frustrating to play. There are many situations I get into where I did absolutely everything I could and I still died. E.g. 1on1 vs a fade, I unload 3 shotgun shots into him as fast as possible and I still die before being able to kill him or run away. As onos, can't do anything at all against a jet packer. To me this is like if the spy in tf2 couldn't kill a pyro at all.
It feel like aliens are overpowered in 1on1 situations and underpowered in groups and vice versa for marines. This is why you always see the entire map dominated by aliens and yet they can't finish the game because a group of marines in the base is very difficult to take down. I'd much rather it was more balanced across the board.
I always feel as marines that it is too difficult to get back up to full health before the next attack, especially if you have pushed out into the map. On publics I rarely see anyone using welders at all, I can understand as well because I don't bother wasting my res on a welder either. Combat in ns2 happens so fast that even if you change weapons at the wrong time you can be dead before you even have time to change back, never mind trying to weld someone in battle. Perhaps if everyone got welders automatically after they were researched then you might see people using them more (provided the hud signals it, I remember before you always had to ask people like 5 times to press e on you). I just find it frustrating to not only be relying on the com for meds and ammo but then also on another person to buy a welder and then stick around to heal you up. Once I get low on HP it ends up turning into a suicide mission because it's quicker than waiting around for someone to heal me. This is why you always see marines hugging armouries and never straying far because you get a lot weaker just by taking a little bit of chip damage.
The other thing that really annoys me is the skulk animations and movement. I feel like it is very glitchy and I really hope it is improved for 1.0. Skulks end up flying around like crazy rotating in weird directions and spaming jump and becoming stuck under your feet. They become very difficult to predict. Even just shooting a skulk wallwalking seems to take more bullets to kill than one on the ground because of the way they rotate and move. I really don't like the walljump thing, I feel like having the speed stored is very strange. I feel like it should just be like momentum that you get and once you lose it then it's gone and you need to start from the base speed again.
Ofcourse its op :) even the devs know it seriously, ask yourself this.
Can you add something as powerful as exo suit and think it wouldn unbalance everything?
Even adding just another basic weapon would destabilize entire balance of an FPS game let alone a heavy armored mech.
Game needs to be entire rebalance atm. Exo suit changes everything.
Cant wait for the buffs to aliens and to Onos.
Not to mention Onos needs to have better control / steering when you let exo suit handle so well. Its not fair to make Onos so horrible slow and annoying to control.
Well had another attempt , first re try the game crashed at the join server screen... BUT
I had yet another go and this time got into a decent server and had a few full matches and exited on my own violition... felt wierd, and it was fun. I turned off the AA , and the experimental texture stream ... not sure if it was either or simply a bad server but on that 3rd attempt the game was smooth all the time, even when there was waves of exos vs a determined alien defence rush.
Cant comment on hit detection as I am very rusty playing NS after such a long hiatus, and I was never really a sharpshooter in NS... more a tactical fighter.... but I do foresee some frustrated players howling at the devs about broken detection when they get dropped in nano seconds but cant seem to kill when they get a chance to kill. I think a reasonable balance change here would be a larger magazine size... a player without godlike aim skills goes empty in such a short period of time, they spend more time trying to melee than shoot in many fights.
UI elements are nice but some of the tips was a bit confusing... icons fly about saying go here, build this and a new player would obey to learn the game faster, then you get a tip with a weapon pointing to the armory... what do you want them to do ? Is it a objective to buy a weapon ? Mini map / Map I would prefer a toggle, and I am not too keen on the background blur... as a player unfamiliar with the maps I use the map a lot, and the blur merely irritates my eyes... and holding C down makes it harder to re position your fingers for comfortable combat.
Jetpack audio sounds too similiar to a skulk chomp, and each time a jetpacker on my team would jet about I would spin about looking for the skulk.
Pressing ESCAPE in the game causes a delay in execution , like it has to reload all the menu assets ... also seems to effect shooting, at least it seemed that way as I bought a shotgun, pressed escape accidentally then found I was unable to shoot my shotgun until I swapped to pistol and back to shorgun... my teammate wasnt impressed.
In ending I say that if my 3rd play was my intial play I would be raving about how well the game is playing now, and how much it has improved... and it has a significant amount, a great amount but I do hope you will add a means to queue to servers ( pressing refresh, then join only to have the game take you back to the main mentu with a message "server full" is annoying ), and add OFFICIAL SERVERS in the EU as well as your US ones, otherwise new players will jump on some randoms server have a terrible experience and never try again.
I had a lot of fun in my 3rd attempt... like the exos except when they hop like aggitated bunny rabbits with a slinky shoved up thier butts.
<!--quoteo(post=1968583:date=Aug 30 2012, 01:55 AM:name=Nukoe)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Nukoe @ Aug 30 2012, 01:55 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1968583"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->What about removing jump and adding that "lockdown" feature I heard of, a while ago? Maybe I'm imagining things, but I could have sworn...
Have the exo lock in place, increasing the damage or rate of fire for the minigun, but decreasing the turning/aiming capacity.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Comments
I like the feel of the performance. It's a more playable late stages of the game now.
The inclusion of in-game music really adds to the experience. I would sometimes have NS1 music playing while playing NS2 to fill that void in the experience.
Kharaa highlights + hive-sight effects are really helpful in having marines/aliens pop out more.
I also like the balance decisions regarding Exosuit (can't beacon, only welding can repair it, can't use Phase Gates)
But I still don't like the fact that MAC's have stackable repair rates.
Ahhh the exo Lockdown ability!
I noticed that too, I think it's one of the CO maps that has a similar style?
Co_kestrel has a pretty similar themed marine start. Ns_machina also has a hive with similar kind of cargo forcefield prop, might have been Tau Ceti. Or Mausoleum. Or Angel's Grave, I never get the hives right on that one. Probably the Tau one though.
It's interesting to see how Veil will play out with NS2. I think the NS1 version felt so good partitially because of the momentum and flow the blink and bhop mechanics allowed, I'm not sure how that translates into NS2 gameplay.
Also, I somehow believe Tanith can be translated into any NS version without any issues. No idea how that happens, but it's almost a miracle how well the whole map worked throughout the massive changes NS1 went from 1.0 to 3.2. It's amazing how little Tanith had to change to adapt to the gameplay during all that, all I can remember noticing are some removed doors and some small changes in vent system to prevent JP HMG abuse in 1.04.
Its the marine start of co_kestrel iirc.
Where the cc was in a pit in the big start and the alien hive room had a vent that lead straight upwards to a cockpit.
tanith
origin
veil (done)
ellipse (coming)
metal
Those 5!!!
Personally I don't think Veil fits NS2. It felt right in NS1, but not this.
I am surprised it actually made it into the official map rotation. If anything it will frighten off new players, as it is so winding I get lost. This is coming from someone who used to play the original.. a lot. I Don't mean to take away the person who put a good job into remaking it though, but it just does not feel as fitting as the other maps.
Summit is playing great, Tram is a hell of a lot better.. Exos are very fun, but I am still a bit unsure about them. Maybe it is just because I am on a crappy PC, but I always find combat starts to get messy in this game. The Exo really doesn't help with this.
When I play other games, I am very tactical in terms of where I position myself in a hallway, etc, but in NS2 it seems to be about spamming 'fire' and jumping around far too much. For me this really takes away the sophistication of combat somewhat. My favourite moments are stalking skulks as a level 1 marine... not jumping around exos with a welder and being in some sort of alien/machine orgy.
I think exo should be more expensive (like 75/100 instead of 50/75), the way it is now its way too easy to save up to exo armor and get like 5 of it at the time the aliens can affort fades.
Also I think it should be like in NS1 where the game ended when a certain percentage of the players of one team quit to RR. The way it is now you are forced quite frequently to play out games for another 10 minutes that were lost at the very beginning. Today there was a situation where 2 aliens played against 7 marines...
Good job with this build @ UWE! :)
So in comes this heavy, waltzing into the hive. 4 of us skulks jump him, and get to work dismantling his leg parts. He jumps, all the skulks at his ankles fill the recently created void beneath the exo, and he looks down and opens fire. All 4 of us died in like half a second.
Plleeeaaase remove exo jump at some stage.
This.
And the repair rate on exosuits needs to be cut in half. They get repaired way too damn fast. Put 3 or 4 MACs on them and they're invincible.
Edit: Costs of jetpacks need to be increased by 5-10 p.res. Exosuits 2 should require three tech points.
I feared the <!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->Exo <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->suit was going to become an OP thing and everybody would be rushing for it! And they did! The first games I played, went totally as alien to just battle this <!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->Exo <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->thing, and lord were devastating (Veil Map) getting closer to those machines were lots of trouble and the only possible way to get close was to wait and ram it, No easy way to confront them directly. We lost 2 games in a row (I kept playing aliens), and at the third game we drafted out a plan to take them out before they develop the <!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->Exo <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->suits.
Advantage I Notice : Marines rushed so hard for <!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->Exo <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->suits that they forgot everything else, and we won a game by just taking them down before they developed them.
The Next Game is where the Cereal business started(Veil Map):
-We did a very good job of skulk rushing, as marines in this ma can just capture lots of resource points in no time, so we keep destroying them. Gaining control of half of the map we took a lot of time, enough that the terror came in through the Left side of the map, an <!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->Exo <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->Suit, and for pure luck, a Newbie was using it and was taken down by a single skulk, but still our minds were not in peace.
-More <!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->Exo <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->suits were coming for sure, and the marines sure had the North strongly defended and the Right bottom (Pipelines), our great commander made it to get some upgrades as carapace and leap, and from all the sudden, Blink; and then our Fade Rush began.
= Fades everywhere! the pipelines had a lot of marines over there defending and our fades just kept blink in and out from Cargo to heal and then attack again, but the best tactic came in when we attacked their North Base like if Everybody in the Alien Team planned to move and attack the North instead! and The Marines Teleport all of their units to the North base and SURPRISE!! Was a trap! Now they left alone Pipelines and an <!--coloro:#0000FF--><span style="color:#0000FF"><!--/coloro-->Onos <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->and several fades rushed to crush everything in there, Some marines made it back, flamethrowers... Totally dark cause no power, a phase-gate near but then shut it down, they lost Pipelines.
Then the <!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->Exo <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->suits finally Came:
We lost fades and skulks like cheese when those machines moved from the north to the middle center of the mouth and kept going south, until we got them in a very closed area of the center with the <!--coloro:#0000FF--><span style="color:#0000FF"><!--/coloro-->Onos <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->, George Support, and Skulks killing single marines around. We took down 2 <!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->Exo <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->suits with one <!--coloro:#0000FF--><span style="color:#0000FF"><!--/coloro-->Onos <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->and then a mix of Fades and skulk to take down the Third one. Using Skulks and fades to ungroup the <!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->Exo <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->sure helped, and then the <!--coloro:#0000FF--><span style="color:#0000FF"><!--/coloro-->Onos <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->to take them individually, BUT also removing their marine support which mean a lot for the marines, but once skulks nom noms them hard, <!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->Exo <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->suits alone are pie.
After that nothing was interesting, we just ate their north base, from all the exits possible and won, but fighting the exo suits was so much suspense and excitement cause is almost a time bomb against the aliens, but what we noticed as a group is that they left everything behind cause they wanted the <!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->Exo <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->suits right away. Last but not least, a very good team of Aliens is needed, commander means a lot even if the Wiki says Alien commanders don't need to do much, they must do more, help to focus groups and rush attacks, organize to take down strong units and eradicate marine bases.
In a summary: <!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->Exo <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->suits a bit overpowered, but Marines are making the mistake (in the games I played) they rush for <!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->Exo <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->suit but leave other things behind, Alien Commander must be more vocal as in our game that helped us and lead groups to take down the Marine Forces. So.... is just learning for Alien Team Players to take down this Exo things.
- Performance is significantly better now. I have high hopes for the future.
- Exos are too quiet. For how heavy they seem they're practically ninjas. They've snuck up on my fade a couple times.
- Cannot evolve to gorge in low ceiling vents or I get stuck. Please fix this! Biling from vents is one of my favorite harassment tactics. But awesome work on the spit projectile! It's shaping up nicely.
- I love the dynamic music, but could we get an option to either lower the volume or turn it off? Chewing on a CC I can't hear marines coming. If I stop biting to listen, is that a marine footstep or one of the percussion hits?
- Server filter ala stop loading all these empty servers every time I refresh the list! I like the pickup game idea. Reminds me of L4D lobbies.
- Tutorials are up! Yay! New people, look at them!
- Veil feels like it has a sizable marine advantage. One example: As alien comm it takes me more cysts to get to a res node then the cost of the actual res node itself. Add the Axe marine who comes to chop up my cyst line and that cost quickly piles up. You want upgrades? I have to rebuild my cysts. Unless my team has the skill advantage, I'm practically required to drop the second hive off the bat.
- 1 v 1 Onos vs Exo the marine will tear the alien apart. Gore is slow and apparently stomp doesn't work (and it's three hives anyways). I know it's asymmetry, but it feels strange since it's generally 50 pres(with the 75 pres dualies the onos definitely has no chance) vs 75 pres. I'm getting more bang for my buck as a fade, unless there are at least 2 or 3 oni with gorge support which doesn't often happen in pubs (or in a lot of the competitive videos I see you guys post). In NS1, the onos had to go through a lot of buffing until it basically hit 1000/850 hp/armor (correct me if I'm wrong, it's been awhile). Which seemed like a lot when it appeared back then, but it really made the Onos a fearsome creature rather than the "Support class that needs support" it is right now.
- Speaking of fade I LOVE the forward momentum, even if it's only a little bit. I can't really explain this one. It might be nostalgia, but it just feels like that's closer to how it should be.
I've no idea if there are changes towards shotguns/jetpacks since I didn't get to see them so far. :)
-You can not leave the Exo. This sucks.
-The Exo-Hand should be able to weld stuff. Why else would they give it a hand? This is not a civilian thing...
-Skulks seem super-overpowered now.
-Love the performance increase, again. Give Max a cookie!
I played the game a lot from build 156, put up with a lot of beta issues and then took a break , only occasionally firing it up to see how its progressing....
... and each new build I get the same thing, crash crash crash.
Yeah ok, may be my rig but all the other stuff seem to be happy with the rig.
Yeah ok , beta is beta but so near release you would think it could run a match without crashing on my rig ? More annoying is the feedback dialogue is hidden, and when you escape the crashed game...it vanishes before you can submit a report.
It still lacks any decent means to queue or even spam join to enter a server.... preformance is still pretty lacklustre ( on a 3.2 ghz PhenomII x 6 , GTX580 , 8 gigs RAM , win 7 prem 64bit ). I am starting to despair the game will get stable at this rate, and then the launch excitement dies down, the servers empty and the game dies a slow annoying death.
I still dont see any official servers in the EU either, so still trying random servers which may or may not contribute to the performance isssues... and if you rely only on your fans to pay up for the servers at launch... the game will die, choked on the frustration of being unable to get on a server.
Ask FatShark (Lead and Gold), ask Uber (UMNC).... both had a popularity boost...both unable to support the demand... both died.
The game itself seemed to be going in the right direction, it looks good and when the performance is keeping up its pretty fluid give or take some issues, but the crashes...
Going to try it some more with some settings off / disabled... verify cache , all that type of things and see how it plays.
My biggest issue is that I still feel like ns2 punishes me for things I can't avoid. Perhaps this is just the way the game is, but I personally find it highly frustrating to play. There are many situations I get into where I did absolutely everything I could and I still died. E.g. 1on1 vs a fade, I unload 3 shotgun shots into him as fast as possible and I still die before being able to kill him or run away. As onos, can't do anything at all against a jet packer. To me this is like if the spy in tf2 couldn't kill a pyro at all.
It feel like aliens are overpowered in 1on1 situations and underpowered in groups and vice versa for marines. This is why you always see the entire map dominated by aliens and yet they can't finish the game because a group of marines in the base is very difficult to take down. I'd much rather it was more balanced across the board.
I always feel as marines that it is too difficult to get back up to full health before the next attack, especially if you have pushed out into the map. On publics I rarely see anyone using welders at all, I can understand as well because I don't bother wasting my res on a welder either. Combat in ns2 happens so fast that even if you change weapons at the wrong time you can be dead before you even have time to change back, never mind trying to weld someone in battle. Perhaps if everyone got welders automatically after they were researched then you might see people using them more (provided the hud signals it, I remember before you always had to ask people like 5 times to press e on you). I just find it frustrating to not only be relying on the com for meds and ammo but then also on another person to buy a welder and then stick around to heal you up. Once I get low on HP it ends up turning into a suicide mission because it's quicker than waiting around for someone to heal me. This is why you always see marines hugging armouries and never straying far because you get a lot weaker just by taking a little bit of chip damage.
The other thing that really annoys me is the skulk animations and movement. I feel like it is very glitchy and I really hope it is improved for 1.0. Skulks end up flying around like crazy rotating in weird directions and spaming jump and becoming stuck under your feet. They become very difficult to predict. Even just shooting a skulk wallwalking seems to take more bullets to kill than one on the ground because of the way they rotate and move. I really don't like the walljump thing, I feel like having the speed stored is very strange. I feel like it should just be like momentum that you get and once you lose it then it's gone and you need to start from the base speed again.
Can you add something as powerful as exo suit and think it wouldn unbalance everything?
Even adding just another basic weapon would destabilize entire balance of an FPS game let alone a heavy armored mech.
Game needs to be entire rebalance atm. Exo suit changes everything.
Cant wait for the buffs to aliens and to Onos.
Not to mention Onos needs to have better control / steering when you let exo suit handle so well. Its not fair to make Onos so horrible slow and annoying to control.
I had yet another go and this time got into a decent server and had a few full matches and exited on my own violition... felt wierd, and it was fun.
I turned off the AA , and the experimental texture stream ... not sure if it was either or simply a bad server but on that 3rd attempt the game was smooth all the time, even when there was waves of exos vs a determined alien defence rush.
Cant comment on hit detection as I am very rusty playing NS after such a long hiatus, and I was never really a sharpshooter in NS... more a tactical fighter.... but I do foresee some frustrated players howling at the devs about broken detection when they get dropped in nano seconds but cant seem to kill when they get a chance to kill.
I think a reasonable balance change here would be a larger magazine size... a player without godlike aim skills goes empty in such a short period of time, they spend more time trying to melee than shoot in many fights.
UI elements are nice but some of the tips was a bit confusing... icons fly about saying go here, build this and a new player would obey to learn the game faster, then you get a tip with a weapon pointing to the armory... what do you want them to do ? Is it a objective to buy a weapon ?
Mini map / Map I would prefer a toggle, and I am not too keen on the background blur... as a player unfamiliar with the maps I use the map a lot, and the blur merely irritates my eyes... and holding C down makes it harder to re position your fingers for comfortable combat.
Jetpack audio sounds too similiar to a skulk chomp, and each time a jetpacker on my team would jet about I would spin about looking for the skulk.
Pressing ESCAPE in the game causes a delay in execution , like it has to reload all the menu assets ... also seems to effect shooting, at least it seemed that way as I bought a shotgun, pressed escape accidentally then found I was unable to shoot my shotgun until I swapped to pistol and back to shorgun... my teammate wasnt impressed.
In ending I say that if my 3rd play was my intial play I would be raving about how well the game is playing now, and how much it has improved... and it has a significant amount, a great amount but I do hope you will add a means to queue to servers ( pressing refresh, then join only to have the game take you back to the main mentu with a message "server full" is annoying ), and add OFFICIAL SERVERS in the EU as well as your US ones, otherwise new players will jump on some randoms server have a terrible experience and never try again.
I had a lot of fun in my 3rd attempt... like the exos except when they hop like aggitated bunny rabbits with a slinky shoved up thier butts.
Have the exo lock in place, increasing the damage or rate of fire for the minigun, but decreasing the turning/aiming capacity.
Have the exo lock in place, increasing the damage or rate of fire for the minigun, but decreasing the turning/aiming capacity.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I agree, jumping Exo looks stupid.