I only have two complains so far with the entire patch, but I want to test them for a good week or so first so I can reflect better
I liked how you mentioned current trends with regards to other companies, but at the same time feel you may have been a bit heavy handed
Portions of the video where you offer deeper insight into what the changes might mean for gameplay were easily my favorite
People still need to really play it though to understand the impact of such a wide-spread patch, but having someone speak aloud the changes might queue in someone about something they might of otherwised missed
All in all I'd say the video was well worth your time to produce
Great video. Something like this should have been made by UWE before release, to show the potential for more varied tactics/gameplay which b250 offers.
You should make one for movement when you get it nailed down (you didnt seem to quite have it as skulk in that video), you have a good way of explaining things in a clear way.
I agree with Reeke.
UWE should have tried a bit harder with explaining, in something like a video, of the changes the patch came with.
Like me I don't read the changelog. I hear the changes from Ns2 friends. I find it easier to understand when people explain
It's Super Effective!Join Date: 2012-08-28Member: 156625Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow
Thanks for everyone's feedback. It'd be certainly something to make official videos for UWE as I've spent many hours promoting good how-to game play for this game that was properly documented (see other Tactical Operations Videos) as it seems that Hugh is very busy with his PR work. Perhaps I would be interested in devoting more time to making quality regular videos if it were officially recognized by UWE
We (the community) would have to get more attention to this initiative to make it happen.
IronHorseDeveloper, QA Manager, Technical Support & contributorJoin Date: 2010-05-08Member: 71669Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Subnautica Playtester, Subnautica PT Lead, Pistachionauts
Your ability to explain things clearly is very helpful and well done.
I know you wanted to focus on the bigger picture, but two small things that weren't mentioned that I feel are huge /impactful :
1) flamethrower disables all structure abilities, from whip to crag etc.. Giving it a very important role (much more than direct damage)
2) not only do exos have horizontal thrust, but are faster overall, have less armor and their weapon damage now scales with weapon upgrades
You also said the only way for cysts to grow faster is for gorges to build them, but drifters can too.
I tried getting a drifter to build a cyst, he sat there doing the building sound and animation, but the cyst refused to grow !
I tried it on a listen-server, and as soon as I placed a cyst near a drifter (or send a drifter towards it), it started building the cyst.
*edit - one small detail: is it possible to make drifters actually look towards their building-target? It just looks weird now, like it's building air :P
Excellent video. Would love to see more of these for sure.
For those interested in providing constructive feedback on future beta test changes they should stroll over to the thread. It isn't just competitive players feedback that is important and many pub stars (I myself being one) have contributed to great effect.
I tried getting a drifter to build a cyst, he sat there doing the building sound and animation, but the cyst refused to grow !
Cysts can only be built once their "parent" cyst is fully grown. So if you place three fresh cysts, and send a drifter to the furthest one from the hive, it will only start building once the other two are built first. Maybe that was the reason?
One slight correction - supply limit doesn't apply to every structure you build, only to some specific ones. For marines supply limit is applied to armories, infantry portals, phase gates, robotics factories, MACs, ARCs, and sentries. For aliens crags, shades, shifts, whips, drifters. That's a pretty small error though, really well done video overall.
Some corrections:
- You have a longer respawn time if you get killed from suicides, environment or rejoining, not a shorter. It's supposed to be a penalty so you don't suicide to quickly replenish your armor.
- ARCs themselves are not cheaper, I think. They are produced faster and the upgrade to the ARC Factory is researched faster as well.
- Not sure if it's just a thing Sewlek changed again in the Beta Test mod, but last time I checked I had to research Advanced Weapons in the Advanced Armory instead of getting FT + GL for free with the AA research.
- Gorge Tunnels used to be able to be echoed for a while in BT, but Sewlek probably deemed it OP at one point in the end or thought that the Khammander should not be able to mess that way with player-constructed structures or shortcut the path that a Gorge needed to take to get a tunnel to a remote location. It also allowed the Khammander to establish a reinforcement connection out of nowhere too quickly. (Plus I actually managed to use the tunnel entrance itself as transport mechanism by sending aliens in, echoing it away and have the pop out at the new destination)
- Shadowstep is the researchable upgrade because it adds quite some survivability to the Fade. Blink makes you move in a somewhat predictable pattern; the new Shadowstep got buffed by being a nearly instant move for dodging marine fire and also works in vertical direction now. Blink provides the movement around the map and gets you close to the marine while Shadowstep is geared towards combat survivability.
It's Super Effective!Join Date: 2012-08-28Member: 156625Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow
I pretty much got the new wall jumping down on the new 250 skulk down now, I absolutely love it. I have some footage that I will produce in my usual quality to help people take advantage of it during this transitional period. Also I think I'm getting the hang of the new fade. Expect to see some good stuff on my channel. Thanks to everyone for all the support. Together we can make NS2 have a bigger impact in the industry
Cannon_FodderAUSBrisbane, AUJoin Date: 2013-06-23Member: 185664Members, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, Reinforced - Shadow
Great video, OP. I don't have much time to play, so it was good to have the changes explained whilst in game to get a visual. Wish someone will make a tech tree with all the new changes (I might attempt one if no one else will do this). Or has anyone got a post or link for it already? This one should be Webbed to the top.
drifters path finding seems to suck in this patch. alot of times i see my drifters go in the floor or have a hard time going around a column to a res node.
It's Super Effective!Join Date: 2012-08-28Member: 156625Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow
I haven't had any issues with drifters path finding, although I've had some weird moments where one of the alien structures (shade/crag/shift) would start walking up walls
Most of the time drifter pathfinding is all right. But I've also seen them bug out and end up going in tiny circles indefinitely, like a dog chasing it's own tail.
Comments
I liked how you mentioned current trends with regards to other companies, but at the same time feel you may have been a bit heavy handed
Portions of the video where you offer deeper insight into what the changes might mean for gameplay were easily my favorite
People still need to really play it though to understand the impact of such a wide-spread patch, but having someone speak aloud the changes might queue in someone about something they might of otherwised missed
All in all I'd say the video was well worth your time to produce
You should make one for movement when you get it nailed down (you didnt seem to quite have it as skulk in that video), you have a good way of explaining things in a clear way.
UWE should have tried a bit harder with explaining, in something like a video, of the changes the patch came with.
Like me I don't read the changelog. I hear the changes from Ns2 friends. I find it easier to understand when people explain
We (the community) would have to get more attention to this initiative to make it happen.
Cheers, thanks for the support
ISE
I know you wanted to focus on the bigger picture, but two small things that weren't mentioned that I feel are huge /impactful :
1) flamethrower disables all structure abilities, from whip to crag etc.. Giving it a very important role (much more than direct damage)
2) not only do exos have horizontal thrust, but are faster overall, have less armor and their weapon damage now scales with weapon upgrades
You also said the only way for cysts to grow faster is for gorges to build them, but drifters can too.
Good job!!
*edit - one small detail: is it possible to make drifters actually look towards their building-target? It just looks weird now, like it's building air :P
For those interested in providing constructive feedback on future beta test changes they should stroll over to the thread. It isn't just competitive players feedback that is important and many pub stars (I myself being one) have contributed to great effect.
Thread:
http://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/128755/sewlek-s-beta-test-mod
Updated beta test changelog:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=130391092
Cysts can only be built once their "parent" cyst is fully grown. So if you place three fresh cysts, and send a drifter to the furthest one from the hive, it will only start building once the other two are built first. Maybe that was the reason?
- You have a longer respawn time if you get killed from suicides, environment or rejoining, not a shorter. It's supposed to be a penalty so you don't suicide to quickly replenish your armor.
- ARCs themselves are not cheaper, I think. They are produced faster and the upgrade to the ARC Factory is researched faster as well.
- Not sure if it's just a thing Sewlek changed again in the Beta Test mod, but last time I checked I had to research Advanced Weapons in the Advanced Armory instead of getting FT + GL for free with the AA research.
- Gorge Tunnels used to be able to be echoed for a while in BT, but Sewlek probably deemed it OP at one point in the end or thought that the Khammander should not be able to mess that way with player-constructed structures or shortcut the path that a Gorge needed to take to get a tunnel to a remote location. It also allowed the Khammander to establish a reinforcement connection out of nowhere too quickly. (Plus I actually managed to use the tunnel entrance itself as transport mechanism by sending aliens in, echoing it away and have the pop out at the new destination)
- Shadowstep is the researchable upgrade because it adds quite some survivability to the Fade. Blink makes you move in a somewhat predictable pattern; the new Shadowstep got buffed by being a nearly instant move for dodging marine fire and also works in vertical direction now. Blink provides the movement around the map and gets you close to the marine while Shadowstep is geared towards combat survivability.
But I don't want a bigger impact in me; that sounds uncomfortable.