Humans Underpowered In 1.1?
Silverbolt
Join Date: 2003-05-23 Member: 16630Members
<div class="IPBDescription">game over man....game over</div> After looking through the changelog for 1.1, it seems to me that the humans got beat on with the nerf stick while the aliens got loads of cool stuff like cloaking, total silence, new blink, new scent of fear, pheramones, regenerating structures, the ability to use resource nozzles without building on them first, and now having more gorges increases their growth rate? Whats to keep half the team for gorging and draining from res nozzles while the other half rushes and keeps the 'rines at bay? The lerk also got some major improvements: more health, less energy used to flap and the ability to shoot umbra. Granted they lost their bite, but these things more than make up for it. Spamming umbra into a marine base while the skulks rush in would be pretty unstoppable. The lurk projectiles are invisible now too? It was difficult to tell where they were coming from before, but now its next to impossible it would seem. Onos gained the new stomp and devour abilities and stomp seems reasonable, but devour is questionable in my view. Once eaten, you not only eliminate a player from the game for the moment, it also replinishes the health of the onos and allows no chance of getting out of the onos alive. I dunno about you guys, but if I found myself being slowly digested inside a giant alien...well, lets just say that all my clips would be spent at my time of death. The aliens gained all these things, and a few drawbacks as well to be fair, but what did the marines get? Bunny hopping was addressed (sadly), meaning that the humans are sitting ducks now. At least with bunny hopping there was a small chance of evasion. Was this really a problem with gameplay? Any experienced skulk can outmaneuver a bunny hopping marine. Killing structures now eliminates upgrades until rebuilt. Once again, why? It was my understanding that upgrading was research. If I were to read a book on say biology and someone burned it, I wouldnt forget what I learned until I obtained another copy of the book. On to the phase gate nerf. Now you have to have a pg upgrade tech, which slows the expansion for the marines, while the new gorge/res system increases the alien's ability to expand. The pistol rate of fire was also lowered due to script abuse. I dont know how much, I just hope it will still fire as fast as I can click my mouse. Now the humans did gain a few things, less build times on many of the structures, an improved grenade launcher and hopefully better turret targeting. The most useful is probably the electricity upgrade, though only against skulks. All other classes, including gorge with it's new bile bomb, could easily eliminate these structures from a distance. Whew, thats a lot of typing. Now im not saying I prefer the marines over the aliens, I actually love to play them both. I'm also not saying this is what will happen, i'm simply suggesting some possibilities to think about. Maybe i'm overlooking some key elements, but that's why i'm posting this. It would appear that the marines are at a disadvantage in 1.1. Your thoughts?
Comments
We're all waiting for 1.1
Posts like this are not constructive to helping the developers release 1.1 any sooner.
Roo
So what is my point? Dont argue about balance.
The HMG firing cone is narrowed so it is more deadly at longer ranges. The cheaper rine buildings will speed up the rine economy very much because the rines have team res whereas aliens have individual res. The only thing major thing that has changed for the aliens is that all evolutions are available at hive one. but bear in mind that they would only have 1 upgrade chamber and hive 1 abilities so they are actually quite weak.
eg. in 1.04 you see and onos, u scream eeek cos it is at the top of its tech tree with everything, but in 1.1 you see an onos it has horn and charge? w/ prolly no armour upgrade. several stock rines and some well placed mines can take hime down. Remeber that the alien player has spent 70/80 res on the thing. but PTing is still being conducted so things should be balanced. <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->
We're all waiting for 1.1
Posts like this are not constructive to helping the developers release 1.1 any sooner.
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It isn't necessary, you're right and I haven't played the game yet. But like I said, it was simply speculation. I have plenty of faith in the NS team, I simply want constructive SPECULATION on why the marines are or are not going to be balanced in 1.1. As for helping the devs release sooner and being unconstructive you couldn't be more wrong. Any dev worth his salt welcomes feedback from the community and will tell you that their product will be released "When it's done." I promise you my post has no influence on the release date of 1.1.
Thanks for the reply Jummeh, you have a lot of valid points and have eased my fears some <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> . I just want to make sure my favorite game stay balanced.
As for the lurks and their spikes, yeah that could be a pain but the question is if they still have that green little impact slapsh when they hit a marine? If they did then at least you know there's a lurk around sniping you down. If not then there's still that red blip on the screen from the damage, if that's not a signal to move then I don't really know what is. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
And something about those new thingies.... yes, alien do get all the different classes at the beginning, but it'll take quite a while to get an onos, because i dont think gorges will build all the rt:s at the beginning, at least not in the pubs.
So, aliens propably get the fades soon after the beginning. Big deal? No. They lack the best thing they had: Acid rocket. Now all they got is those miserable swipes, which are TOO easy to avoid. Normally in a long hallway where it was lmg rine vs fade, rine would have crapped his pants, now rine just takes his pistol and "snipes" the fade a little bit, and if the fade blinked, the rine would still have at least 33% chance of winning, un-armored fades arent that tough, u know?. So, what im saying is, that although alien do get the high lvl classes at the beginning, they lack the things that make them tough.
And about rines, the commander got LOTS of little thingies that make their lifes easy. For example, almost all structure costs were lowered, not to mention building times.
So, if the playtesters are a lot better at being marines than being aliens, the aliens must be made stronger to produce a balanced game, and will thus rule whenever the skill is about equal on both teams. THEN aliens will dominate and marines will suck.
If, however, the playtesters are equally skilled at playing both teams, the balance will be right.
and one less post about medical stations and auto-weldbots
why couldnt they be defended? rines are too slow to be able react to skulk raids, and un-supported TFs will always go down .
Ta da, the new electrification should change this totally and so the aliens need a bit more help. Both sides have been massivly improved and that sounds great.
and the marine last stand is so much more fun. I remeber we managed to hold out in generator hive suviving off default res income for bout 45 mins (that was til our HMGs sunk into the stairs - we were starting to push back with the odd HA too <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif'><!--endemo--> ).
Which is my point exactly (nobody believes the pts rock as marines but suck as aliens, do you?).
As for my last posts about not playing a game I haven't played yet and making all these comments n stuff I'm sorry.I guess i got alittle too or still anxious VERY anxious to play NS v1.1.OH I AM looking VERY forward to playing NS v1.1 to kick some serious **** <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> and obliterate everything in site hehe <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
Yes, of course. In the end, one team will win, and if that is the more skilled team, then that is the natural order of things (i.e. "Natural Selection"). If that is the marine or alien team nine times out of ten then that's either because all the skilled players favor one team or because the game is unbalanced.
This is always going to be a problem, but the fact of the matter is I think that 1.1 is going to more balanced, with less favor on maps, size of teams and general balance issues that make some teams more equal then others.
I am not going to say that 1.1 is balanced, but instead that 1.1 is <b>More Balanced</b> (and most likely funner) then 1.04.
Kharny: Was I the one comming thay game? Was there about 5 infantry portals and we downed like 20 fades?