Overall NS2 Suggestion (220+)

iClearSkies · September 2012

<div class="IPBDescription">From a Alpha NS1 player</div>Hello, Im simply going to put out some things that i have seen thats frustrating alot of players and myself included. im going to do a marine side suggestion and a kara suggestion as well as a game mechanics suggestions.
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The TSA

Overall the TSA is a relevantly good team and the upgrades etc match it well Im going to post some things (list format) that are open to discussion and ill have a suggestion with improvement ideas.

Flashlights:
I cannot stress the failure of flashlights, the fog thats added to the flash lights by your teammates makes viewing a perfectly lit hallway seem like i tossed in a Smoke grenade into the darned thing. please remove the Haze FX from the flashlights.

Sentry and Sentry Batteries
I remember the old NS1 when sentries required a turret factory to power the turrets, now i can see the upgrade to this VIA the sentry batteries but there's one problem, the sentry batteries have such a short power distance you cant get more then 2-3 sentries around it. As well with the sentries the tracking of the sentry AI is very slow and on higher forms such as fade and onos looking directly at a sentry will make it not shoot you at all. Although the sentries are used mainly as a sulk deterrent and should no way overpower a fade or an onos by itself but multiple sentries should get a multiplier bonus for higher res forms while remaining standard damage for lower res forms (lurk and below). Although sentries are great a little too much tactical emphasis was placed on them by requiring the direction or FOV of the sentry, NS1 Sentries used to just spin in 360 degrees slowly and engage targets at a slow pace no matter were they are in the room. the FOV code for the sentries is slowing down the reaction time of the sentries for too many checks if its in the FOV of the one sentry by no means a sentry should be a All win building but it should be an annoyance to ANY alien life-form or structure.

Rifle Butt-stocking (LMG melee)
The LMG melee is a great addition to NS2 in my taste, however things that i see about the Melee is quite odd when i can swing a LMG and hit my enemy, but not a Shotgun? I can understand not being able to melee with the Flamethrower (its heavy and huge) and the GL (too small to cause stun damage) but the LMG and Shotgun are the same length and can be used as a bat quite effectively. Im also disappointed in the fact that the Melee does not have a sound upon contact letting you know you hit your target, you just simply hope you hit them and they slide away to gun them down.

LMG
The LMG is always a great weapon for any stage of the game, however some annoyances that i found with it is the new Spin up noise that it makes, its quite confusing on what the LMG is a mini-gun or a carbine.

Shotgun
The shotty is overall balanced, other then the non-melee ability (rage) it does seem to require a more pellet amount with various damages. The shotgun seems to be a nice weapon but the cone of fire makes it limited in general, i should suggest maybe widening the cone past 1ft for proper spread and maybe a nice damage bonus for getting the shotgun right next to your intended target the blanket damage no matter how close you are is kinda lame and unrewarding (IE sneaking up on a fade and shotgunning him point blank in the back does not kill but 1/2 wounds)

Flamethrower
Nuff said not a really good direct damage weapon however good for area cleanup, I might suggest that the range be extended slightly and rather then have a FX damage system make it a particle based damage kinda like the Spore cloud but more short living. your throwing fire not a bullet, so it should linger on the floor or on the walls creep etc slightly.

Grenade launcher
Nothing much wrong with the grenade launcher other then the fact of the grenades not having much of a kick when shooting it. the inital speed launch of the projectile might be upped slightly. Im also dissapointed with the lack of ammo variety (nerve gas etc) thats listed in the commanders description.

Exosuits
Oh noes the exosuit although the exosuit is a valid replacement of HMG versus the Giant robot of doom i would suggest that the Fisted exosuit be rethought with something for more additions, i would love to see a exosuit that maybe you could equip a secondary weapon to the exo such as a GL or flame thrower but it would require ammo (since mini-gun ammo is infinite)

MAC
Macs are a nice addition to NS2 and i welcome them, however the spamming of the macs is quite annoying and its impossible to see how a group of 17 macs on 1 exo can be seriously legit. I would rather see a cap on the mac limit (maybe 5?) to lower the spam and have the commander value his macs then rather use them as cannon fodder to weld his equipment.

ARC
Arcs are a nice addition to the game, from NS1 i remember the seige turret and the mobile tank of the ARC is a nice addition. However i do think that the Arc does need to be buffed in the ways of speed (slightly) and maybe increase the fire and target priority rate slightly (IE target Upgrades > Whips > RT > Cyst > Hive). Also a nice effect maybe is that maybe the arc can have plasma burn on its targets? blue fire damage for 3-4 seconds after. For all of these though maybe limit the ARC to 3-4 at once to give some balance.

Welder:
Welders (by animation) are an upgrade of the default build device that marines use, I would love to see that people with welders can be able to build structures faster then the default welder and would promote players to maybe buy welders instead of to just heal Exos. having a welder is more vital to everyone and the offset of maybe spending that extra 5 res to repair broken nodes and to build faster might be a nice incentive. Maybe a nice after-burn affect for it being a fire based weapon :D

Arms Lab
Model needs a replace. Nuff said.

Observatory
Oh the things i used to remember with this, The obs needs a buff slightly in my opinion. the return of motion tracking needs to come back big time and not in the sense of the old NS1 MT. THis motion tracking would be nice to have that uses the same mechanics of the Exosuit Sulk tracker but for all aliens for the standard marine. A nice offset to have this is have it a high res option (50 res or so) to have you team able to track sulks down a hallway for mid game battles but breaks tracking of line of sight.
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The Aliens
The aliens need to be revamped in my opinion. with the new introduction of the commander some things need to be changed or modified in order to make a more balanced hive-mind feel.

The Cyst Network
The network is a wonderful tool, it connects your buildings, and alerts the commander when something foreign is on its creep. however instead of having just the commander view such things why not have the black cloud see able for all alien species? A nice addition of the cyst network as well is maybe add some effects that benefit the aliens due to being on home territory, IE a .5 speed increase, .10 re-gen, 20% sound step reduction, alot can be added to the creep side of the house.

Dark Vision
Every pro alien player most likely uses the Darkvision mod posted on the forums (that just outlines the enemy and not greens the environment) this should be implemented as the main alien feel with some slight additions regarding the environmental, the dark vision should pick up anything with an electrical output neural or man-made. Keyboards and other things decorations should light up to make the environmental a harder place and give some marines some leeway when walking about. But dark vision should shine when the power nodes are out due to the lack of energy in the area and marines should be really easy to spot. maybe even add textures to see the spores and umbra?

Default sulk speed
a walking marine should NEVER outrun an alien. Just dosent happen, a sulk by default should be slightly faster then the marine to give them an advantage of the marine range bonus i might suggest upping the speed a little to overlap 5% of the marine walking speed

Wall jumping
A Needs to be addressed, 80% of all normal players would not remember to wall jump and the mechanics of the wall jump do not suit a majority of the levels open spaces. I might suggest that the wall jump be like a mini-leap rather then a speed boost cause not many can keep the multiplier up to keep the speed boost. I also would love to see wall jump for actual leap for rapid leaping to speed up the sulk even faster then normal celerity can boost.

Parasite
Parasite should be like the NS1 version were its permanent until you return back to a armory to remove it. parasite your enemy should be a major tactical advantage of the aliens rather then a 5 second (look at me im here!!!!) outline of the character. Making marines aware of their parasite might be a nice offset with a HUD notification of a bug or foreign contaminant detected or something.

Hyper-mutation
Is a waste of a movement (shift) chamber, it needs to be replaced with something more edgy then just getting back your res. ive NEVER seen this upgrade used and i dont think i will. i might suggest replacing this with a form of adrenaline (see below) that boosts your adren regen speed.

Celerity
Needs to be active all the time and not just out of combat.

Adrenaline
220 killed this upgrade, this upgrade makes your have double your adren but still gives you the horrible adren recharge rate. NS1 always had this as a mastery skill and it should be either brought back or have the two separated to overlap hyper-mutation (IE Feral conditioning [Double Adrenaline]) or maybe for double the normal energy offer a nice attack rate boost?

Feign death
Awesome upgrade, love it. I would rather have the old recall ability so that the hive would save you rather then you trying to escape the group of 8 marines who murdered you with 18 hp.

Cloaking
Cloak needs a small nerf in my opinion to where if your stalking "Shift walking" you should have only a 3-5% alpha rather then a 10% stalking is moving very slowly and being able to see your killer playing sneaky sneaky and watching him isnt fun.

Carapace
Maybe a small buff to health?

Regeneration
Needs to be revamped to work while in combat at a excessively slow rate but out of combat at a really fast rate. getting shot or attacking will automatically trigger the slow rate.

Sulks
Sulks are sulks nothing will change this fact, however the bite needs to be returned to its 218-219 FOV cause its hardly impossible to get a bite anymore with bunny-hopping marines.

Lurk
Lurks are nice but i would love to see the lurk have a small damage buff on the spikes or the bite especially towards organic targets versus structured targets. A suggestion i might have is maybe have the bite do more damage to organic targets with the poison on top. and spikes deal a slight bit more damage versus structures. Although the parasite effect is nice on the lurk i think its unnecessary and should remain as a sulk feature.

Fade
Metabolize was a WONDERFUL addition to the fade, but now its been replaced with vortex (also very good) but i would hands down rather have Metabolize vs vortex any day due to the fact i can slowly regen my health and adren and still be on the front lines like a fade should not whimpering back to the base cause a marine got a lucky shotgun in.

Onos
NEEDS DEVOUR, Stomp is nice but Devour was the Cake of the onos and i would love to see it make a return. also i remember seeing in the forums on earlier builds of the beta crouching with an onos would extend its armor spines and make a nice-bullet shield for smaller creatures behind it that would be a nice return.

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Game Mechanics

The Maps
The maps are all fine in dandy except for a few small quirks that ive seen the community obsess over, For one the power nodes, if a power node is not present then emergency power should be used, nuff said. So at the start of the map the entire map except marine start should be in emergency power mode, this will make hitting a power node before an RT a nice game-play mechanic and reiterate that power-nodes should be protected. Secondly cannon fodder, things like discarded boxes and benches tables etc should be in the map a majority of these maps are clean cut hallways and few people realize that workers actually lived there before its not a barren wasteland meant only for combat between aliens and humans.

Welder points
I miss the lack of welding points in a map, for example welding a vent shut or like how the game lists "good for reparing structures, armor of other players and WELDING DOORS SHUT" this needs to be re-looked and maybe added in a future release? maybe have aliens bite welded points to cause damage and blow open vents and doors? like the NS2 trailer.

more ambiance
It would be nice to see things like bitable or repairable panels or barricades to help pushing long hallways, its alot more scary to see a hallways torn to bits with parts hanging all over then a nice clean unlit hallway. Seeing a red lighted hallways with roof panels and more damage would be a nice deterrent to maybe say hmmm maybe i should wait for backup?

Decals and FX
I see a lack of FX and decals for most marines and alien weapons. things like slashes on the walls or bite-marks , bullet holes burn marks etc add color to the game and would make a nice comeback.

Deadalious · September 2012

Perhaps your idea of replacing Hypermutation might fit what I've tried to promote with my proposed fix.
<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=121113" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/in...howtopic=121113</a>

iClearSkies · September 2012

The 1 upgrade thing seems a bit overpowered though, imagine if they rushed it then every sulk has leap while marines have nothing other then maybe a 1/2 shotgun

Polak · September 2012

Hyper-mutation should let you get one up from crag or shade hive instead shift hive ups :) think about reg+cara on onos :) and remove feing death maby focus?

ScardyBob · September 2012

NS2 needs more sulks and lurks :)

GameOver · September 2012

i agree with most of your points.

I'd rather have heavies and hmgs instead of exosuits. exosuits look awsome but can't use pgs, can't do anything... instead of punish some onos.

Welder is fine as it is.

Carpace is fine as it is ... now.

And... Sulks should be Skulks and Lurks should be Lerks! ^^

Overall NS2 Suggestion (220+)

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