Game is too frustrating
lncabin
Join Date: 2013-07-10 Member: 186024Members
Join Date: 2013-07-10 Member: 186024Members
I'm fairly new to NS2 but I played NS1 so I get the jest of how this game worked.
I've been playing for a couple of weeks now and figured out how everything works.
Concerning the server list. It seems like ~75% of the servers are over 100ms, which are servers I dont consider to play on. Half of the remaining <100ms servers employ some sort of ridiculous reserved slot, 16/20, get-kicked-system. Another few rotate you back and forth between their 2 open slotted servers. This usually leaves me with like one or two servers to even pick from.
It seems like servers with over 20 players suffer from lag even if my ping is decent.
I'm Sli'ing two 550ti's and get around a constant 50-60 fps everywhere but for some reason the game feels so choppy. Like I'm getting 20 fps.
The balance in this game seems completely off. Marines, in the beginning of the round, feel way too fragile. Late game, once they reach exos, they feel way too powerful. Advanced armory items are way too easy to get and GLs and FTs are too cheap compared to their power.
Playing as an alien is extremely frustrating. The smallest bit of lag seems to fuck me over. I've witnessed a number of times that I was running behind a marine and seemed to bite him like 20 times for me to just to get owned in the end. Bit connections dont feel right at all and this becomes exacerbated when you get players that like to spam the jump button. Jumping on a marine needs a cooldown timer, seriously.
I've been playing for a couple of weeks now and figured out how everything works.
Concerning the server list. It seems like ~75% of the servers are over 100ms, which are servers I dont consider to play on. Half of the remaining <100ms servers employ some sort of ridiculous reserved slot, 16/20, get-kicked-system. Another few rotate you back and forth between their 2 open slotted servers. This usually leaves me with like one or two servers to even pick from.
It seems like servers with over 20 players suffer from lag even if my ping is decent.
I'm Sli'ing two 550ti's and get around a constant 50-60 fps everywhere but for some reason the game feels so choppy. Like I'm getting 20 fps.
The balance in this game seems completely off. Marines, in the beginning of the round, feel way too fragile. Late game, once they reach exos, they feel way too powerful. Advanced armory items are way too easy to get and GLs and FTs are too cheap compared to their power.
Playing as an alien is extremely frustrating. The smallest bit of lag seems to fuck me over. I've witnessed a number of times that I was running behind a marine and seemed to bite him like 20 times for me to just to get owned in the end. Bit connections dont feel right at all and this becomes exacerbated when you get players that like to spam the jump button. Jumping on a marine needs a cooldown timer, seriously.
Comments
As for balance, alot of work have gone into patch 250, and its alot more balanced then before, but some tweeks will allways be needed.
Allso, please remmeber that NS2 have a vary high skill cealing and vary much cater to the hardcore gamer, and not you average "omg im rambo" cod player. It takes time and practice to pwn in NS2
Here have a look:
If your team goes to Central Drilling after taking Water Pump you can stay behind and guard it
Letting Aliens take the right side of the map is ok because you Cavern is undefendable and you can cream the long Cyst Chains
Once your team has Central they can go for Crusher and cut the map off in the other direction
All you gotta do is prevent them from having Water Pump which is easy when you are shooting unmoving targets that have your back to you
If all else fails and you still aren't getting a positive score by playing the map you can always ask your Commander for early mines
For Aliens there are styles to get kills even with intense lag. . . I recommend you hop on a Combat server and find these out for yourself
Was this UWE's intention from the start? I mean NS2 being different from the usual instant gratification frag games we get like tf2, bf, cod etc is a good thing but that will always mean it will be limited when it comes to attracting players population wise. If UWE intended for it to be like this then I see no issue but being a business and all I thought they would want as many players as possible even from the casual side.
Either way despite the amount of builds this game has, the unavoidable issues with NS2 makes it one of those games that does not forgive a losing team which I assume most people find frustrating. Whether it be losing an expensive lifeform you saved up for or marine gear most people seem to dislike this as they have to go back to a skulk or lmg marine and potentially get stomped until they lose or concede. The game also relies heavily on having competent team mates. So when you get people who do not understand the meaning of teamwork or the game mechanics the game suffers. Or a bad com as well as one opponent who is obviously skilled enough to make matches one sided. NS2 just has so many variables involved that it is easy for most games to be a bad experience depending on the players familiarity with the game and how nice/nasty they are or if they decide to stack.
Didn't really help that they sprung 250 without up to date tutorials leaving new players who do not want to read forums or go out of their way to look into the changes limited or confused in utilizing the changed movement to it's full potential. With tutorials at least the people that disliked the fact that their old movement system was changed could learn how to really make use of the new ones before deciding it sucks because it is different. With proper tutorials new players could learn how to spend their time practicing the correct way instead of being dropped clueless and wrecked in a game where the experienced players already know the hidden mechanics of the game. Gotta wonder what direction UWE will take their next game.
Although this makes for very interesting and challenging gameplay it's also quite a learning curve for new players.
My advice: keep playing, you'll get the hang of it, do not give up after a couple unsatisfying games.
Still hoping the community can create something of a trainingmap or campaign to learn the game.
Anyway carry on gentlemen.
It is better to keep a hang of it, when everyone has an equal footing and they can learn together.
Not to mention as soon as those same newbies turn into pro players themselves, the first thing they will do is not give damn how frustrating they are to play against.And since the got demolished as newbies, they will demolish newbies themselves as revenge.
meanwhile all the marines wanted was jetpacks and shottys and would wait until they had them before ending the game...unless the aliens got their stuff together
AWESOME!
[happy dance]
A much needed addition to the server side of ns2.
I'm the one on the right.
AO (high) consistently steals 20 fps across most hardware and also introduces some mouse delay due to it's very nature.
I'm curious what video card you have that you saw such gains from disabling shadows though .. Should only result in a 5-10 fps loss.
Ambient occlusion is more GPU demanding than most shadow implementations, almost universally across game engines. (mostly because its newer tech compared to shadows)
Use the latest drivers and some users have reported success with using the console (~ key) command: maxfps 120 or whatever number you want as your maximum fps. Some match their vsync with that command. (both 60)
Feel free to start a tech support forum on the matter
Also, be sure to use SFR, not AFR.
here's why:
Some games just don't perform well with SLI. I used to have an SLI setup and with almost every game I had much better FPS with single card setup. Try taking out the SLI connector and assign the 2nd card to handle physx and see what you get. May be better
You can nom nom nom on all the Gorgeous team work plays,
But don't Skulk, when you lose
Because everyone Onos, this game is very bitter sweet,
So don't let your frustration Fade your commitment.
There is fun to be had in the end.
NS2 rely so much more on teamplay and communications, unlike "modern military shooters" such as BF and CoD.
And you wont ever see a single marine walk into a room whit a shorgun, take down 4 fades solo screaming yolo.
Im sure that uwe realize that it could have made the game like that, and double its income. But at the cost of 10 years of loyal fans...
Right now its "hard to learn, hard to master". But UWE is working on *secret stuff edited* and other things to welcome new players, and making NS2 "ease to learn, hard to master".
But as any other game, you simply cant cater to everyone liking. Some people like that you can go directly into a match, after first time installing it, and go around noscoping people.
While others want a more complex game, where you have to work a team to reach your goals. NS2 is such a game. It might not be for all, but for the hardcore player that takes pride in becoming good at something difficult, NS2 can fill that space.
This game is horribly balanced IMO. Aliens have the upper hand in the beginning and Marines have the upper hand after a longer period of time. What I mean is that if the Aliens can't win in the first few minutes or unable to keep the Marines down to a couple of RTs then the Marines inevitably are granted the upper hand due to game mechanics. If the game has been pretty even from the beginning than the Marines are just able to deux ex machina with virtually unstoppable Exo pain trains. The sustainability of the Exo pain train is outrageous. Every non exo Marine has the ability to heal the Exos on top of MACs. Marines that are wielding Exos and have become impossible to kill. This situation of all Marines being able to sustain the Exos and one another, being extremely mobile with jetpacks, and having powerful fire support makes the Exo pain train completely OP. Add in powerful and easily researchable AOE weapons into the mix doesnt help.
The entire research line and skill required to be a Marine commander is nothing compared to the Aliens. Having more than one Comm chair isnt even really necessary to win a game as a Marine. They dont have to deal with cyst chain management and nearly all upgrades only require building one structure for the research option.
But, still, the number one thing I hate about this game is the Marine's ability to completely shut down skulk bites by bunny hopping. It becomes overly frustrating when every fight turns into a bunny hop circle jerk around each other. Its especially frustrating when I'm able to sneak up, land a bite only for the Marine to jump (and sometimes being able to do a second jump off the top of my head) while none of my bites seem to connect even though my jaws could be wrapped around their face.
I'm not going to say balance is perfect, but the problem I see in games isn't that the game is unbalanced, it's that pub games don't have the communication and teamwork that it takes to counter some strategies.
Many marines take a pretty defensive stance early in the game, worrying that skulks will take down any RTs so they opt for more conservative approaches instead of expanding quickly. This doesn't work out most of the time. Skulks are fast and can be everywhere at once, and RTs are likely to be lost, but a big part of the early game is more than keeping RTs up, it's also map dominance. if you push forward and get good map control, you can replace RTs later. If you can take out alien RTs they can be without for even longer since alien RTs take more time to construct without a gorge. It's not obvious but marines usually need to push harder than they do early game.
newer aliens typically try to pressure exo trains head-on, but that's probably the worst way to do it. Exo's can't be beaconed. that's a huge weakness that can and should be exploited. too many exos? just take out the base. one exo with lots of support? force a beacon and let the other team take out the exo.
lots of ways in which they are different. I've actually heard the opposite of this. since alien tech is quite a bit simpler. the recent updates might have changed that though.
following a marine is a lot tougher than if you jump off walls and act erratic. don't attack from the ground, come from the walls and ceiling
Marines cannot bunnyhop.