Just some Thoughts..
iProbie
Join Date: 2012-11-14 Member: 171167Members
Join Date: 2012-11-14 Member: 171167Members
<div class="IPBDescription">A newbie's perspective on the game's problems</div>Greetings, I am still relatively new to this game but I would like to provide some feedbacks, ideas or insights regarding balancing in NS2 because it seems to be a hot topic recently with all the "Aliens are OP nerf!" going on around.
I'd just like to point out some problems that Aliens and Marines have:
--Reliance on Structures, Power Nodes and Researches--
Marines rely on Armory, Observatory, Arms Lab, Proto Lab and Phase Gates too much and those buildings in turn rely solely on a single frail Power Node in the room. Basically once a base got its Power Node downed by an Onos rush + bile bomb spam, it's fubar. You can't beacon, you can't phase, you can't see some things because it's darker, you can't refill your hp and ammo. You can't even buy weapons from an offline armory and all your upgrades are lost when the Arms Lab power down assuming that the comm doesn't have 2nd functioning arms lab around. Marines also need their commanders to research their weapons. This is extremely costly and ridiculous at the same time. You have to first build an armory then upgrade it to advanced armory and then research the individual weapons and then you can buy them! hooray! Really, 2 comm centres just for proto lab while the aliens can have Onos with just 1 hive..
Aliens on the other hand, doesn't require any structure to evolve into lifeforms. Aliens only need a hive or shift/crag and can start evolving into other lifeforms immediately, without any need for structures, any need to research anything. Good players would capitalize this advantage and go for example: an early Fade/Lerk while the marines are still feeble and still spread out, giving Marines so little chance early on or maybe an early Gorge to help defend important keypoints such as Veil's NanoGrid. Researches do give traits and upgrades but overall, you only need pres to evolve into a basic lifeform.
Aliens also don't have to build their own buildings and the infestation limitation is kinda ridiculous because Cysts are spammable and early on, aliens can quickly spread infestation to an unclaimed tech point while marines are still building their extractors and power nodes near their starting point, giving aliens the ability to secure and scout more areas earlier.
--Mobility--
Either aliens have too much mobility or marines have too few mobility, your pick.
Skulks are much more mobile than a marine no doubt. Therefore, they can ninja extractors while marines are occupied. Marines rarely can ninja kill Harvesters because Skulks are faster and can navigate through ceilings, walls and vents and therefore can respond to the ninja marine much faster than a marine responding to a ninja skulk.
Lerk and Fade are self explanatory, killing good players with Lerk and Fade are harddd. Gorgey is an exception because it's a Gorge.
Jetpacks require Proto Lab and a research on it too, so while you're waiting for the comm to research it, couple of Fade and Lerk would massacre your teammates who only need Blink and Spores to function well. Jetpacks also does not improve your hp or armor and a lot of maps have a lot of low ceiling areas. So, you're still stuck with 100 hp and 90 armor while Fade is really hard to kill and boasts 250 hp and high armor on top of that.
Exos are also slower than Onos due to Onos' sprint ability. So, setting up a push with Exos are slow unless you build Proto Labs at the room next to the Hive chamber and run the risk of have the room overrun or have the comm drop a 50 res Exo which is kinda too situational atm. Setting up Onos rush? easy, all Onos can just sprint, wait up until energy is back full and then charge in, faster than an Exo rush.
--Utility--
Utility-wise, let's check what aliens have and marines have:
Marines:
-MAC
-ARC
-Sentries
-Flamethrower
-Grenade spam
-Jetpacks
-Healing and ammo refill from Armories
-Weapons, medpacks and ammo drops from the commander.
Aliens:
-Bile bomb
-Umbra and Spores
-Xenocide
-Stomp
-Blink
-Spurs, Veils and Shells
-Crags, Shifts, Shades and their respective abilities
You can choose which side has higher utility. all I see is aliens having more utility.
TL;DR:
-Marines are currently relying too much on buildings which in turn rely on Power Nodes to do anything. Once a base got its power taken down, marines can take their hands off the keyboard and wait for the 2nd wave of zerg rush to come in and greet them with a sigh and an occasional frown.
-Marines are also too reliant on ridiculous amount of researches (arms lab, armory and adv armory, proto lab, robotics factory too? and observatory for phase gate..) while basic lifeforms only need 1 or 2 researches to reach most of their potential (bile bomb, leap, blink, spores)
-Either marines are too slow or aliens are too fast. you pick which side you'd like to fix.
-This overall suggest that Marines need a lot more teamwork and coordination than Aliens in general. It can be either a problem on the players' side (they are not used to such style yet) or the game's side (the game is forced to adapt to the players' comfort zone).
I'd just like to point out some problems that Aliens and Marines have:
--Reliance on Structures, Power Nodes and Researches--
Marines rely on Armory, Observatory, Arms Lab, Proto Lab and Phase Gates too much and those buildings in turn rely solely on a single frail Power Node in the room. Basically once a base got its Power Node downed by an Onos rush + bile bomb spam, it's fubar. You can't beacon, you can't phase, you can't see some things because it's darker, you can't refill your hp and ammo. You can't even buy weapons from an offline armory and all your upgrades are lost when the Arms Lab power down assuming that the comm doesn't have 2nd functioning arms lab around. Marines also need their commanders to research their weapons. This is extremely costly and ridiculous at the same time. You have to first build an armory then upgrade it to advanced armory and then research the individual weapons and then you can buy them! hooray! Really, 2 comm centres just for proto lab while the aliens can have Onos with just 1 hive..
Aliens on the other hand, doesn't require any structure to evolve into lifeforms. Aliens only need a hive or shift/crag and can start evolving into other lifeforms immediately, without any need for structures, any need to research anything. Good players would capitalize this advantage and go for example: an early Fade/Lerk while the marines are still feeble and still spread out, giving Marines so little chance early on or maybe an early Gorge to help defend important keypoints such as Veil's NanoGrid. Researches do give traits and upgrades but overall, you only need pres to evolve into a basic lifeform.
Aliens also don't have to build their own buildings and the infestation limitation is kinda ridiculous because Cysts are spammable and early on, aliens can quickly spread infestation to an unclaimed tech point while marines are still building their extractors and power nodes near their starting point, giving aliens the ability to secure and scout more areas earlier.
--Mobility--
Either aliens have too much mobility or marines have too few mobility, your pick.
Skulks are much more mobile than a marine no doubt. Therefore, they can ninja extractors while marines are occupied. Marines rarely can ninja kill Harvesters because Skulks are faster and can navigate through ceilings, walls and vents and therefore can respond to the ninja marine much faster than a marine responding to a ninja skulk.
Lerk and Fade are self explanatory, killing good players with Lerk and Fade are harddd. Gorgey is an exception because it's a Gorge.
Jetpacks require Proto Lab and a research on it too, so while you're waiting for the comm to research it, couple of Fade and Lerk would massacre your teammates who only need Blink and Spores to function well. Jetpacks also does not improve your hp or armor and a lot of maps have a lot of low ceiling areas. So, you're still stuck with 100 hp and 90 armor while Fade is really hard to kill and boasts 250 hp and high armor on top of that.
Exos are also slower than Onos due to Onos' sprint ability. So, setting up a push with Exos are slow unless you build Proto Labs at the room next to the Hive chamber and run the risk of have the room overrun or have the comm drop a 50 res Exo which is kinda too situational atm. Setting up Onos rush? easy, all Onos can just sprint, wait up until energy is back full and then charge in, faster than an Exo rush.
--Utility--
Utility-wise, let's check what aliens have and marines have:
Marines:
-MAC
-ARC
-Sentries
-Flamethrower
-Grenade spam
-Jetpacks
-Healing and ammo refill from Armories
-Weapons, medpacks and ammo drops from the commander.
Aliens:
-Bile bomb
-Umbra and Spores
-Xenocide
-Stomp
-Blink
-Spurs, Veils and Shells
-Crags, Shifts, Shades and their respective abilities
You can choose which side has higher utility. all I see is aliens having more utility.
TL;DR:
-Marines are currently relying too much on buildings which in turn rely on Power Nodes to do anything. Once a base got its power taken down, marines can take their hands off the keyboard and wait for the 2nd wave of zerg rush to come in and greet them with a sigh and an occasional frown.
-Marines are also too reliant on ridiculous amount of researches (arms lab, armory and adv armory, proto lab, robotics factory too? and observatory for phase gate..) while basic lifeforms only need 1 or 2 researches to reach most of their potential (bile bomb, leap, blink, spores)
-Either marines are too slow or aliens are too fast. you pick which side you'd like to fix.
-This overall suggest that Marines need a lot more teamwork and coordination than Aliens in general. It can be either a problem on the players' side (they are not used to such style yet) or the game's side (the game is forced to adapt to the players' comfort zone).
Comments
For instance, marines seriously do not lack any mobility at this point, and are much faster at expanding than aliens.
One thing you might not have even considered; it's the one building in the room where you HAVE to be facing a wall, with your back to everyone. And it does not go down quite as quickly as you'd think.
And your whole argument of "All it takes is an Onos..." kinda gave me a strange face...
The United States anti-nuclear battery can shoot down 200 missiles in 5 minutes! All it would take is 230 nukes to completely devastate the entire country!
I agree. we need more turtle options