Alien Minimap
Ohnojojo
Join Date: 2011-08-01 Member: 113400Members
Join Date: 2011-08-01 Member: 113400Members
Something has always bothered me about aliens HUD vs marines HUD.
Marines have a minimap on their HUD are are able to open up the map with "c" to see the entire map with slightly more detail.
Aliens don't have a minimap but they still have the large map accessible by pressing "c".
I understand this is because aliens are supposed to rely more on "Hive Sight" because its assymetrical and more "organic".
I understand that being marines, you have the technological advantage of increased map awareness via the minimap but aliens can do the same thing with the large map, albeit the large map obscures vision.
I know that the "c" map needs to be in the game for aliens and marines alike for those who don't know the map as well as they would like, but what is the point of aliens not having a minimap-like function if they already have a full map?
I'm not suggesting that aliens have a minimap or that marines have their minimap removed.
I'm just wondering if theres a way to somehow streamline this?
Its not a big issue, or even a minor one, its just something that has annoyed me a bit. (Especially when walking into a marine because you're travelling across the map with you "c" map open.)
Marines have a minimap on their HUD are are able to open up the map with "c" to see the entire map with slightly more detail.
Aliens don't have a minimap but they still have the large map accessible by pressing "c".
I understand this is because aliens are supposed to rely more on "Hive Sight" because its assymetrical and more "organic".
I understand that being marines, you have the technological advantage of increased map awareness via the minimap but aliens can do the same thing with the large map, albeit the large map obscures vision.
I know that the "c" map needs to be in the game for aliens and marines alike for those who don't know the map as well as they would like, but what is the point of aliens not having a minimap-like function if they already have a full map?
I'm not suggesting that aliens have a minimap or that marines have their minimap removed.
I'm just wondering if theres a way to somehow streamline this?
Its not a big issue, or even a minor one, its just something that has annoyed me a bit. (Especially when walking into a marine because you're travelling across the map with you "c" map open.)
Comments
I remember using Hive Sight in NS1, mainly in combat situations and for tracking enemies. I think it behaves in the same way in NS2 but just something about it is lacking. I can't place my finger on it though.
I wish I could parasite structures and see them on Hive Sight.
I think we would see more structure sniping if that were the case.
How has Hive Sight been nerfed? It feels lacking but I don't know what exactly is nerfed about it.
I've noticed this aswell, can be a little frustrating when you're hiding on the ceiling of warehouse and a marnie starts spamming pistol shots into the ceiling in your general direction, without knowing your exact location.
Are you revealed on the minimap if your hitbox is visible within a marine's cone of vision? Or is there a circular area around a marine that reveals aliens within that area? (excluding walls)
It's just missing a ton of stuff. Off the top of my head:
- Parasite used to be vastly better - was permanent until death, visible from very far away and could be applied to structures
- Hives were visible at all times(and some structures I think?)
- Friendly players were visible at all times
- Structures and players under attack would appear on hive sight with an alert
For all intents and purposes, aliens in NS2 no longer have hivesight. All they have is ghetto parasite and visibility of recently damaged marines. Now if you want any of the above, all you have is the full screen minimap.
Although I could only imagine like a strike-squad of cloaking skulks... parasiting marines to death from the ceiling of The Gap. Hilarious..
You can see nearby friendlies with hivesight.
I think you're limited to about 20-25 meters.
The viewing distance of friendlies, and marines under the effect of parasite could do with an increase.
Of course! I para 10-20 feet before engaging, hoping for a 2 bite kill. Para kills are fun but too risky.
You shouldn't go in alone, ever. Unless you are facing off against one, maybe two, marines. Or if you know you are the better player, which is hard to gauge :P . So indeed a parasite on the marine can help your buddies closer to the marine. Also the para+2 bites has always been very viable in any case, throughout NS/NS2 history...
About an "alien minimap", I'd say the marines are already a lot more visible then aliens. Alien vision highlights them and when they engage combat or are parasited, they become visible through walls. Not even mentioning you know their orientation because of the outline, compared to a simple sprite in NS. There is no need for a minimap (it would look silly as well).
I do agree that the Hive sight needs to get some of its old toys back. And I want parasite going back to its NS roots, able to tag structures and marines. It should also be permanent, however I'm open for it being removed by a medpack (1 res for 1 parasite), like it used to be in NS2 alpha/beta
Agreed, sometimes it's a right pain to hit with parasite.
Yeh exactly. Structures under attack on hivesight was a great feature in NS1, particularly helpful for showing RTs under attack. Now you have to open your map and look carefully for the small flashing RT. It would get players in pubs to recognise their importance more too.
I believe it works if there is line of sight from the marines model to the aliens model. I have successfully hidden as a Skulk while having "eyes on" a marine, so that might not be exactly right - but it feels pretty close in my experiance
Is that definitely true? Certainly seems more difficult to me, and I played a lot of NS1.
I think the current reasoning behind it for not tagging structures is that "a parasite can only work on an organic target", as indicated by it's DamageType, which is why it also doesn't work on Exos. I'd drop realism for gameplay here, though.
I remember playing NS1 and being able to look around at a room, and see which, and where the hives were, any allies, and any parasited enemies.
Now I can barely see a parasited marine one room over, all he has to do is walk 30 feet away from me and I lose vision of him despite being parasited.
Seems pretty useless minus the capability for early game 1para2bite kills.I don't even really bother parasiting late game at all, it just seems a waste of energy that could of gone into leap.
It feels the same to me, a hitscan bullet. Maybe NS2 has more accurate hitboxes and that makes it harder.
decent players are likely to bump into eachother both with their maps open, because they both wanted to check status of allies and get a feel of where the enemies could be situated etc.
Man, I haven't seen per-pixel collision detection since Doom 3. Good stuff.
When para was permanent and had much more range, I would be able to para and leave because that marine knew that not only did I know where he was, so did my team, and that was more than enough to slow down a marine from rushing in and hitting my hive, or pushing for a res node.
On the topic of old hivesight, I liked it, but there was so much clutter on my screen. Maybe I forget since I havent played NS1 in years, but if the ability to see your team mates, and hives was only when you had the predator alien sight active, then that would be a little better than having to hit C.
In my opinion, I hate having the map available only because it feels so odd to stop every few minutes to reference the map, I know this might be asking for a lot, but I do wish there was a different way to see whats going on without having to pull up that map, but that's just a pet peeve.
Something fun that I wouldn't mind having, would be to have a physical map being pulled up, animation and everything. I'm a sucker for dumb little features like that, but I think that having to reference a map should be more dangerous, albeit not fun for newbies.