Balance, Instant Death, etc.
Sorien
Join Date: 2011-07-28 Member: 112643Members
Join Date: 2011-07-28 Member: 112643Members
Why do I not see people complaining about this issue? It's absolutely retarded.
As a Skulk, or Lerk about 80% of my deaths are from a Marine pressing their fire button and I die instantly. The same can somewhat
be said about Fades, except I usually have enough reaction time to get away before I actually die which leaves me at <30 health.
Now I don't know if its a net-code issue, or if LMGs just do too much damage in a short time... but it needs to be addressed.
Now before anyone tries to come on here and Troll me for being a newbie or something, I'm not... I've played NS1 for years,
and NS2 for a long time during beta.. of which this problem didn't exist, at least in earlier versions such as 160-190.
Another problem that I've noticed is that when Marines turn, they rotate their torso/arms/head instead of their whole body,
which is actually a nice feature... but it goes WAY too far which makes it hard to tell where people are aiming and makes you think they're
shooting you from their butts, such as the screenshot below:
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/Rkqlu.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
I also think 25 damage bites should be merged with the 50 damage bite due to the fact that even a "glancing" bite should do decent damage...
of which 25 is not, especially since Marines can jump around like jackrabbits now that the Marine "jump slow" has been toned down.
As a Skulk, or Lerk about 80% of my deaths are from a Marine pressing their fire button and I die instantly. The same can somewhat
be said about Fades, except I usually have enough reaction time to get away before I actually die which leaves me at <30 health.
Now I don't know if its a net-code issue, or if LMGs just do too much damage in a short time... but it needs to be addressed.
Now before anyone tries to come on here and Troll me for being a newbie or something, I'm not... I've played NS1 for years,
and NS2 for a long time during beta.. of which this problem didn't exist, at least in earlier versions such as 160-190.
Another problem that I've noticed is that when Marines turn, they rotate their torso/arms/head instead of their whole body,
which is actually a nice feature... but it goes WAY too far which makes it hard to tell where people are aiming and makes you think they're
shooting you from their butts, such as the screenshot below:
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/Rkqlu.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
I also think 25 damage bites should be merged with the 50 damage bite due to the fact that even a "glancing" bite should do decent damage...
of which 25 is not, especially since Marines can jump around like jackrabbits now that the Marine "jump slow" has been toned down.
Comments
I honestly don't consider it much of a problem in the terms of Late game Shotgun Vs Skulk.
Remember that a shotgun is a 20 res investment (whether picked up or not) compared to a Skulk...
However I do agree with the GL being stupidly nukey vs everything but onos.
I suppose late game lerks just need to learn to avoid Shotguns... Spikes are still rather effective even at late game, cant say I dont really play enough lerk... And late game skulks I suppose need to be a LOT more careful where they attack from...
As far as the 25 bites, I agree they are annoying. I'm no game developer so take what I say for what it is... but I think completely removing them would severely hurt marines to the point of incredible struggle early game again. My more realistic suggestion (in my opinion) would be to just tweak the hitboxes a little so that 25 hit hits have to be much more glancing than they currently have to be.
I'd also love to see 'head bites' deal more damage than they do. That isn't exactly an easy task to bite that little dome.
Long story short, you can't just be reactive to taking damage in most online games. By the time you register taking damage and react, your fate might already be sealed. You should instead simply understand this and play accordingly by anticipating the damage that you're about to be taking.
pretty much this. you can abuse this in many games that have quick deaths (eg CS/most modern games). when you turn a corner, you have an advantage over the person camping it because you'll see him before he sees you due to differing pings. it's <i>very</i> slight, but it can be exaggerated with a higher latency.
Long story short, you can't just be reactive to taking damage in most online games. By the time you register taking damage and react, your fate might already be sealed. You should instead simply understand this and play accordingly by anticipating the damage that you're about to be taking.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The instant death problem cannot even be compared to any other FPS because it simply doesn't happen like it does on NS2 on other games. I've also played Marines quite extensively and can easily get 30 kills with only 1-3 deaths, which is very rarely possible on Aliens unless you're an Onos.
As for anticipating damage, you can't plan or strategize movements when your body is in such a different place than where it should be. A 50-100ms difference is acceptable, but it's more in the realm of 600ms when your ping is 50ms which is completely unacceptable.
If this were ranged vs. ranged, it wouldn't be as bad... but since one team is a majority of melee, response times need to be much tighter than what they currently are.
Also... Besides falling into pits and lava... Shouldn't ALL of your deaths result in a marine left clicking? I guess mines don't count.. But they had to left click at some point to put them there.. right?
Oh... Melee bashings are right clickies... Guh! Getting a bash kill on a skulk feels so rewarding, I love it.
As a lerk, you just gotta keep moving. After some practice, I found myself staying alive longer than if I were a gorge, which is weird considering being a lerk is way more risky. Try not to always fly in from the direction they're already facing. It's sometimes more rewarding to find a way around and catch them in the rear. Fly in from behind, bite the guy in the back in the ass and then gas them up. If you don't have gas yet, then bite the guy in the back then flap round while right clicking them. Just harrass them! In large group fights, the last thing you want to worry about is getting a kill on some one. Your job is to weaken them so that way the other aliens have an easier time taking them down.
If anything, you're best bet on getting a kill is to catch up to the guy trying to run back to base to heal up. Keep an eye out for the weak ones trying to fall back, as they are easy kills for a lerk.
As for anticipating damage, you can't plan or strategize movements when your body is in such a different place than where it should be. A 50-100ms difference is acceptable, but it's more in the realm of 600ms when your ping is 50ms which is completely unacceptable.
If this were ranged vs. ranged, it wouldn't be as bad... but since one team is a majority of melee, response times need to be much tighter than what they currently are.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
i often get exceptionally good KDR as lerk in addition to marine. lerk versus marine seems even more powerful than marine versus skulk imo.
you do a 'drive-by' spike and spore, then retreat. then wait for regen to kick in if you need hp, then fly straight back through for another 'drive-by'. what the hell can the marine do? if he doesn't have flamethrower to remove the spore then he just dies, and if he has flamethrower then you poison bite him and finish off from range :P
also, i think the interpolation talk is highly exaggerated. it can't possibly be much more than 100ms, because 100ms is the maximum in tf2 and i've seen some RIDICULOUS interp <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9j5IlNnimg" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9j5IlNnimg</a> (note in that clip i was playing with 33ms interp).
in my experience, the interp in ns2 has never been close to being as bad as that clip.