Marine Support/Strategy makes fun factor of NS2 less fun(Pub view)
chibimike
Join Date: 2007-09-09 Member: 62232Members
Join Date: 2007-09-09 Member: 62232Members
I'm an old NS player and I love NS and even NS2 is a great game. However from my experiences of NS2 play it seems the game for Marine side lacks a lot of fun and the main reason I notice is the huge lack of support that we get on the ground.
One thing I noticed right off the bat is when you're in the com chair I haven't seen any marine request queues like there use to be on the left hand side for meds/ammo/orders. You will hear them and can space bar to them still, but I haven't seen anything popping up like it use to in NS1. Health bars on soldiers don't stand out so good like they use to on things.
NS2 feels like you need heavy comm support and you rarely ever get good commander support, it's like a 50/50 chance if you're ammo or meds will come. People never want to spend money on supporting the marines on the ground. In NS1 it felt like you could actually accomplish something when running around and you would always get meds or ammo if you need it.
You can argue that it's really just bad commanders etc etc... But I see this happen more often and even if you build an RT fend something off get bitten need some meds you will not always get support and it really drags the experience down. You always feel stuck, or if you kill some whips or something and have to wait on ammo spamming z and then finally get ammo when a skulks about on your ass biting you. It really makes the experience suck and I hate playing marines for this reason now... You feel like you can kill one or 2 things and then either have to run back to base or hope the command will support you.
I've read on here people saying the win rate is 40% marine 60% alien... I don't know where the hell you pull these numbers from because I can play 12 games and out of the 12 games aliens have won 10 times and the only time they lose is when no one jumps in the commander spot for them at the beginning of the game.
On a side I'd just like to say FOR PUB games I think the new giving ever play res is a terrible design as it lacks pub strategy because the players have to buy there weapons, mines etc etc etc... So if I commander researches mines and no is buying mines because they all want to save for exo/shotgun or something... It flaws the strategy, in NS1 the commander control that stuff so public play worked a lot better. You could organize shotgun rushes and tactics better, because you could okay everyone we're going to shotgun rush the hive and you just dropped the shotguns down for everyone and went. Now if you do that the team has to have the res and be willing to buy the shotgun...
But these are not really issues for non pub matches because they have some sort of strategy and will get commander support and use the things from the armory.
One thing I noticed right off the bat is when you're in the com chair I haven't seen any marine request queues like there use to be on the left hand side for meds/ammo/orders. You will hear them and can space bar to them still, but I haven't seen anything popping up like it use to in NS1. Health bars on soldiers don't stand out so good like they use to on things.
NS2 feels like you need heavy comm support and you rarely ever get good commander support, it's like a 50/50 chance if you're ammo or meds will come. People never want to spend money on supporting the marines on the ground. In NS1 it felt like you could actually accomplish something when running around and you would always get meds or ammo if you need it.
You can argue that it's really just bad commanders etc etc... But I see this happen more often and even if you build an RT fend something off get bitten need some meds you will not always get support and it really drags the experience down. You always feel stuck, or if you kill some whips or something and have to wait on ammo spamming z and then finally get ammo when a skulks about on your ass biting you. It really makes the experience suck and I hate playing marines for this reason now... You feel like you can kill one or 2 things and then either have to run back to base or hope the command will support you.
I've read on here people saying the win rate is 40% marine 60% alien... I don't know where the hell you pull these numbers from because I can play 12 games and out of the 12 games aliens have won 10 times and the only time they lose is when no one jumps in the commander spot for them at the beginning of the game.
On a side I'd just like to say FOR PUB games I think the new giving ever play res is a terrible design as it lacks pub strategy because the players have to buy there weapons, mines etc etc etc... So if I commander researches mines and no is buying mines because they all want to save for exo/shotgun or something... It flaws the strategy, in NS1 the commander control that stuff so public play worked a lot better. You could organize shotgun rushes and tactics better, because you could okay everyone we're going to shotgun rush the hive and you just dropped the shotguns down for everyone and went. Now if you do that the team has to have the res and be willing to buy the shotgun...
But these are not really issues for non pub matches because they have some sort of strategy and will get commander support and use the things from the armory.
Comments
Sounds like it's bad marine teams mostly. Early game marines should dominate if they can aim, killing skulks is extremely easy. And the only real reason marines should start having issues is if they fall far behind in resources and aren't aggressive enough. But I see marines win just as often as aliens to be honest. Next time you see aliens winning a lot, check to see if it's the same people doing very well, one or two really good people can win the game in a pub.
You're basically half dead already if you don't have any armor left, and since you're by yourself, the same problem applies to sending in a mac or dropping an armory -- there's a really good chance someone's gonna come in and finish you off anyway and I just lost somewhere between 2-10 res.
I tend to win those games though, so your issue is probably just bad commanders.
I'm not the best marine commander, but I see myself as a decent one and I play with decent commanders most of the times which means: they keep me alive with ammo/medpacks, when I'm too far away from a armory, when we don't need the tres for other things, and stuff like that.
But still, there are many games, where I yell for ammo/medpacks and become nothing. I always tell myself in these moments that the com is new and marine commanding is kind of overwhelming lots of times. There are up to X players wanting to be fed with goodies or buildings to build (you could hit your "jump to alert/request"-key every 5 seconds in some rounds) while you must keep up with upgrades, expansion, alien movement and so on. Marine commanding tends to be very stressfull (for me at least) when you're faced with an alien team which is as good or even better as your team.
It depends; 6v6, 8v8, 12v12. In a 6v6, 2 good players can win a match. In 8v8 and 12v12, not so much. Slow or sluggish comms can ruin a good early game. Inattentive comms can weaken mid/late games and comebacks.
OP, I think you'll have more fun after playing with better comms vs weaker alien teams. Comms can still drop weapons (all weapons, jps, and single gun exos), but need more resources (early on) to be effective. Some comms are cheap, some fear wasting res (it adds up early game), some have big mid/late game plans.
Also, P.Res isn't that big of an issue, compared to NS1. A comm can still drop mines, if no one is willing to purchase and use them.
Or relocate into that vent shaft in ns_bast, lol
The magic number that breaks balance seems to be 16. On servers with more than 16 slots I see balance tipping totally to the alien side. With 8 or less players on each side we managed to win as marines, even if our aiming skills were average (public alien players also miss a bite or two, so "aiming" affects both sides
This. Bad players never got meds and ammo in NS1 unless it was special circumstances like a hive rush. At least that's how it happened everywhere I played. Part of being a good commander is figuring out who you should actually be spending res on instead of wasting it on people who are just going to die anyway.