Ok I've Played The Game On A Lan. My Point Of View
Dark-Mantis
Join Date: 2003-01-06 Member: 11960Members
offcourse i've played online too, mostly as alien but allso as marine so i know
most of the (dis)advantages.
Now i've got a few friends who play a lot of counter strike and are realy good at
aiming. While i am pretty good as alien online, i die too fast on lan.
We've allso come to a few unbalances (maybe fixed in the patch)
ok so i die too fast, could be because my friends got a realy good aim, but i do think
people online have a good aim too, so it can't be only aim.
The problem SEEMED to be lag. While on lan we had a ping of 50 (wich is quite high
on a 100mbit lan) we actually didn't realy notice it.
while online, it's not rare to see pings of 300 and above.
marines seem to be more bothered by lag because they need to aim more,
while aliens got a bite and area damage weapons.
The first match, we went slowly because a lot of people were new to the game.
at the end it was a big battle between onos, fade and lerks (aliens won due to me
flying as lerk behind the turrets and chewing away the portals <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> )
the 2nd match however, the marines won big time.
reasons were.
1) marines start with about 100 resources, aliens start with 13 each, wich is enough
to evolve into gorge and that's it. Then you get about 1 res each 2 sec
(yes 1 gorge) while marines get like 2 res each sec.
This give the marines a huge start because they can start building turrets and
resource extractors (or what are they called) while aliens stay behind.
if you're unlucky, you evolve to gorge and get killed before you can build anything
*possible fix, give aliens full (33) resources at the start so they can actually
build something right away. (might allso give aliens a chance agains marine rush)
or lower the starting resources for marine.
2) siege turrets (probably fixed with the patch)
We had a 2nd hive somewhere (forgot the map name), the marines had taken
the 3rd one. Then they build a siege on the other side of the hive wall.
completely surrounded with turrets and marines, we had no chance to take it
out. Our 2nd hive got destroyed and no option to get one back within 5 minutes.
(allso for some reason the turrets didn't stop firing when the factory was
destroyed)
*probably fixed with the next patch.
3) Upgrades
Marines can upgrade some stuff, it'll stay forever. Armor, weapons and sensors.
They can allso upgrade it all with one base. While aliens need to have a 2nd and
3rd hive to get upgrades. Aliens allso need to reupgrade each time they die.
And with only one hive, aliens allready resurrect slower than marines with a
smart commander.
*possible fix, increase the alien upgrade cost and make it permanent unless
changed.
4) Turrets.
The difference between turrets and offensive chambers is too big.
While marine turrets have instant hit, offensive chambers have a slower projectile
speed. Allso the rate of fire on offensive chambers is a lot slower.
Offensive chambers are only good in delaying marines, you rarely see marines
get killed by an offensive chamber, while aliens die like hell when in range of
turrets (unless onos).
these are small things that give marines a good ammount of advantages especailly
in the early game.
oh and imho the grenade launcher is a bit overpowered, it fires a bit too many
grenades in a quick time.
most of the (dis)advantages.
Now i've got a few friends who play a lot of counter strike and are realy good at
aiming. While i am pretty good as alien online, i die too fast on lan.
We've allso come to a few unbalances (maybe fixed in the patch)
ok so i die too fast, could be because my friends got a realy good aim, but i do think
people online have a good aim too, so it can't be only aim.
The problem SEEMED to be lag. While on lan we had a ping of 50 (wich is quite high
on a 100mbit lan) we actually didn't realy notice it.
while online, it's not rare to see pings of 300 and above.
marines seem to be more bothered by lag because they need to aim more,
while aliens got a bite and area damage weapons.
The first match, we went slowly because a lot of people were new to the game.
at the end it was a big battle between onos, fade and lerks (aliens won due to me
flying as lerk behind the turrets and chewing away the portals <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> )
the 2nd match however, the marines won big time.
reasons were.
1) marines start with about 100 resources, aliens start with 13 each, wich is enough
to evolve into gorge and that's it. Then you get about 1 res each 2 sec
(yes 1 gorge) while marines get like 2 res each sec.
This give the marines a huge start because they can start building turrets and
resource extractors (or what are they called) while aliens stay behind.
if you're unlucky, you evolve to gorge and get killed before you can build anything
*possible fix, give aliens full (33) resources at the start so they can actually
build something right away. (might allso give aliens a chance agains marine rush)
or lower the starting resources for marine.
2) siege turrets (probably fixed with the patch)
We had a 2nd hive somewhere (forgot the map name), the marines had taken
the 3rd one. Then they build a siege on the other side of the hive wall.
completely surrounded with turrets and marines, we had no chance to take it
out. Our 2nd hive got destroyed and no option to get one back within 5 minutes.
(allso for some reason the turrets didn't stop firing when the factory was
destroyed)
*probably fixed with the next patch.
3) Upgrades
Marines can upgrade some stuff, it'll stay forever. Armor, weapons and sensors.
They can allso upgrade it all with one base. While aliens need to have a 2nd and
3rd hive to get upgrades. Aliens allso need to reupgrade each time they die.
And with only one hive, aliens allready resurrect slower than marines with a
smart commander.
*possible fix, increase the alien upgrade cost and make it permanent unless
changed.
4) Turrets.
The difference between turrets and offensive chambers is too big.
While marine turrets have instant hit, offensive chambers have a slower projectile
speed. Allso the rate of fire on offensive chambers is a lot slower.
Offensive chambers are only good in delaying marines, you rarely see marines
get killed by an offensive chamber, while aliens die like hell when in range of
turrets (unless onos).
these are small things that give marines a good ammount of advantages especailly
in the early game.
oh and imho the grenade launcher is a bit overpowered, it fires a bit too many
grenades in a quick time.
Comments
its good the way it is.
How many players were on the lan server?
If more than 25 ppl marines win in general!!
thats bad, but its still a good ballanced mod with 20-25 ppl.
With health as low as a skulk that advantage can certainly make a difference.
This happens to me much more often than i'd like:
me=marine, approaching a corner
1. i see the image of a skulk coming around that corner (just one frame, by the looks of it)
2. i pull the trigger
3. i am dead
Due to lag i:
- don't see the skulk running towards me
- don't hear him bite
- don't see myself go down
- never hear my gun fire probably because the server knows i am dead before i pull the trigger.
That's with some 70ms ping on my end (ASDL), usually high ping (200~300ms) on the skulks' end.
On the internet u have lots more on dial-up and a real mixture which makes it hard to determine who actuall is good and who sux.
On my mates dial -up i only play aliens as the lag is to hard to aim right.esp. when they r doing cirlces around u. But the onos or fade splash accouts for lag, lol
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Lag IS an advantage for fast moving classes, that's why it's a disadvantage when it doesn't lag.
Skulk takes like what, 6 shots to kill if not upgraded. Machineguns have allmost no spread so hit pretty
much everything you're aiming at. With lag, it's harder to aim, while without lag, it's harder to dodge.
oh and btw, we were playing 4 vs 4 on the lan.
and i agree with everything being pretty balanced in the end game, but at the start, marines have a large
advantage. (especialy with the starting resources)
But grenade launchers need tweaking, they fire too fast and/or do too much damage.
Direct confrontations are bad for skulks ! Especially in long hallways!
The difference between turrets and offensive chambers is too big.
While marine turrets have instant hit, offensive chambers have a slower projectile
speed. Allso the rate of fire on offensive chambers is a lot slower.
Offensive chambers are only good in delaying marines, you rarely see marines
get killed by an offensive chamber, while aliens die like hell when in range of
turrets (unless onos).<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
How many times have you seen a marine base gaurded by 4/5 turrets and how many times have you seen 10 or so OC stacked up with DC healing them? it all works out fair, i see that now