Comment and Qs about current NS2
Karpman
Join Date: 2012-11-19 Member: 172488Members
Join Date: 2012-11-19 Member: 172488Members
I've played NS on and off through the years since I was introduced to the HL mod NS1 at a LAN party years ago (remember those?). I've always been interested in it, but could never really get into it. The main reason is it's just too much work to get into a good game. I can't/don't want to devote the time and energy to get with a good server so I just pub it. What happens is most of my NS experiences are fun for a bit when I come back to it, but I quickly hit a point where it is no longer fun. Nearly every game becomes a one sided stomp, so I wind up with futile defeats and empty victories. Even on random team servers, it most often winds up with a small handful of vets dominating in a way that it feels like they are playing a totally different game.
I got on last night and found the Bootcamp option in Training. Those few games were by far the most fun I have had in NS2. It was fun because it felt balanced player-skill wise. It felt like I belonged there, my actions and decisions mattered. I had insights others missed, and missed things others saw. I could be way off on why it was fun, though, because it's difficult to be objective about such a subjective experience. Bootcamp may not actually be more balanced, but that's what it felt like for me. I can say with 100% confidence that one of the main reasons it was fun is because I only had to click one button to play. I really do not want to browse a server list for 5 minutes in the desperate hope that the next once won't have some strange mod or unwelcome/toxic culture or stack teams. When I want to play a videogame, I want to play a videogame, not play Goldilocks where everything is either too hot or two cold.
I played both comm tutorials and those are ACES. Comming in NS2 is so different from any other game experience that there is no frame of reference for a new/inexperienced player. It's incredibly beneficial to the overall experience of all players to have these tutorials because now more people can comm. Furthermore, these tutorials are examples of good tutorials. Bad tutorials are boring or too elementary. These balance out explaining the basics while being engaging and leaving out enough to entice the player into trying stuff out in real games.
I may have missed it but I can't find the bots in training. The bots are.... less than cooperative, but it's a handy way to try out stuff in a controlled environment. That's doesn't appear to be an option. Is there a free play mode or something similar?
The wiki looks to be out of date. Where I can find stats and info? I can't easily find basic info and that leads to needless and unfun mistakes. For instance, last night I played gorge and used babblers. I wasted res building multiple eggs before I figured out one egg now gives you max babbs.
I got on last night and found the Bootcamp option in Training. Those few games were by far the most fun I have had in NS2. It was fun because it felt balanced player-skill wise. It felt like I belonged there, my actions and decisions mattered. I had insights others missed, and missed things others saw. I could be way off on why it was fun, though, because it's difficult to be objective about such a subjective experience. Bootcamp may not actually be more balanced, but that's what it felt like for me. I can say with 100% confidence that one of the main reasons it was fun is because I only had to click one button to play. I really do not want to browse a server list for 5 minutes in the desperate hope that the next once won't have some strange mod or unwelcome/toxic culture or stack teams. When I want to play a videogame, I want to play a videogame, not play Goldilocks where everything is either too hot or two cold.
I played both comm tutorials and those are ACES. Comming in NS2 is so different from any other game experience that there is no frame of reference for a new/inexperienced player. It's incredibly beneficial to the overall experience of all players to have these tutorials because now more people can comm. Furthermore, these tutorials are examples of good tutorials. Bad tutorials are boring or too elementary. These balance out explaining the basics while being engaging and leaving out enough to entice the player into trying stuff out in real games.
I may have missed it but I can't find the bots in training. The bots are.... less than cooperative, but it's a handy way to try out stuff in a controlled environment. That's doesn't appear to be an option. Is there a free play mode or something similar?
The wiki looks to be out of date. Where I can find stats and info? I can't easily find basic info and that leads to needless and unfun mistakes. For instance, last night I played gorge and used babblers. I wasted res building multiple eggs before I figured out one egg now gives you max babbs.
Comments
Check this recent link:
https://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/comment/2332742/#Comment_2332742
I honestly haven't seen very much toxicity in this game. The big fun killer for me is skill disparity. It's anti-fun to lose swiftly and completely without even knowing WTH happened. Note this isn't simply a "git gud" problem. At a certain point, beginners can't even begin to improve when they play against experienced players. That's a big issue for a game as complex as NS2.* This issue may not be fixable, though, as NS2 does not have a large enough population to have balanced games more than 50% of the time.
*I am not attacking vets. They are not causing the problem, they are not acting maliciously, they just want to play the game too.
But the game still has the same old feeling 1-2 players decide the game most of the time. And didn't take long before someone accused me of cheating. That's me for another while i guess
1. Does crag heal go through walls? I've always just assumed it does, but I don't remember if it's a fact or I just imagined it. 2. Where is the new community wiki? It's just... gone.
You're thinking of the "Request Orders" command. There is no "request harvester/extractor" command.
"Request Orders" on Marines becomes "Request Harvester" on Aliens. It's the same button.
They are UWE Delta, UWE Lambda, and UWE Omega. They should be in your mod list since you've played with them before, so you can activate them from there before you start your local server. You can also subscribe to them if you want to keep them updated without having to join a server.
By design, the extensions do not get loaded when running a local listen server. They will be loaded if you run a dedicated server (locally or hosted elsewhere). Generally, we don't put much in these and they're typically used for hot-fixes only.