A New Vets Perspective
eggmac
Join Date: 2003-03-03 Member: 14246Members
Join Date: 2003-03-03 Member: 14246Members
<div class="IPBDescription">While you wait for the PR Blitz to begin</div> When I came back home from my holidays 2 weeks ago I found myself being a veteran for 1.1. My european clan successfully applied to playtest the new version and I became one of the 10 fwd-players who received the grand honour to participate in this project. So the first thing I did was to open the NS forums and see which new privileges I gained. I realized with excitement that now a "Veterans Forum" was accessable, full of posts about 1.1 issues, background information and organizational stuff. I read through a couple of posts and realized that they did not differ much from the posts in the Beta Information forum, which I used to read when I was still a 1.04 player. So I headed to the "1.1 download information" topic and got the 120 MB .zip file. I wasn't sure whether I should start to play Flayra's latest stroke of genius right after the download or whether I should wait for a more appropriate time to savour my precious treasure. Yet, the curiosity and the excitement were too dominant and I joined the only semi-full server I could find.
We were only 6 and the map was eclipse. "Fine", I thought, "at least not a new map and I'll get into it very quickly". First thing I realized was that the ready room looked like the Computer Core Hive area. I joined the marine side and reinforced in Computer Core (that was obviously one of the few relocations I've seen in 1.1/2.0). Something was wrong with the colours, everything was so sparkling red and I heard the ringing of nearby sentries, yet I couldn't see any. Not exactly sure what to expect from the new build, I wasn't too confused at that moment and just decided to get some ammo and move out. When leaving CC I suddenly realized there were some small, black buildings all around the place. "Oh, the turrets got smaller, I read that in the Changelog. How cute they look!" were my thoughts. But I had no time to think about those sentries for a long time, because suddenly some strange pictures appeared in the top left corner if my hud. I didn't really realize what they were, but then I started to concentrate on my HUD. I knew something bugged me the second I joined the game and now I realized what it was: There was some kind of blue circle right in the middle of my screen, where a tiny cross used to be. "Ah ye, new crosshairs, right". So I changed my weapon to pistol and watched that new crosshair as well (Unfortunately I do not remember how it looked like because I replaced all new crosshairs with the old ones some days later. They obscure the sight too much).
Getting more interested into those new cosmetic changes, I remembered that I've read somewhere that a new pistol RoF was implemented. And so I decided to make some shots into the wall. I didn't expect the feedback I got, though. There was still no RoF of a pistol, but the new sounds were striking. The pistol sounded like a toy gun with a silencer. "Sweet sounds, sweet sentries; what a cute new version!" were my thoughts when I continued to walk into the direction of South loop. The small pictures were still constantly popping up in the corner of my hud and disappeared again. I thought I saw a medpack there, but I wasn't sure. Anyway, when I reached Southloop I was a bit confused because the tunnel leading to Maintenance was missing. So I went up to Keyhole and, voilà!, there was a new entrance to the hive. Not expecting anything serious and continued my way when suddenly an onos de-cloaked right in front of me. I knew from the forums that onos were going rampant in 1.1 and that sensories were excellent for sneaky attacks, yet the shock-effect was still present. I started to jump around like crazy, shooting into the onos with my toy gun, but the jumping only slowed me down and I died 2 seconds later. When dieing, I realized that structures decloaked right behind the onos, where my not very well aimed bullets hit.
"Oh, that's not as cute as I thought, this is going to be really different from what I knew about NS". Having reinforced in CC again I found a jetpack and an HMG lying around so I took them, loaded some ammo, and flew back into Maintanence. At least that's what I thought, but 'flying' wasn't really like I expected. "New Jetpack, ye, how could I've forgotten that". I couldn't stay in the air and I couldn't hover through the tunnels as I used to, but I eagerly continued my way to take revenge. In SL I already heard the sounds of a fight going on and I increased my pace just to find another Jetpacker fighting a berserked Onos between OCs which were trying to spike him and the hive emitting umbra every few seconds. I had no time to concentrate my sight on the new, smaller ocs (very cute as well, by the way) and on the decloaking effects because I tried to fly around the onos and to bring him down. Yet, I had to land every few seconds, I didn't really get the twist of the Jetpack. Fortunately, the Onos didn't get the twist of killing me either, so after a few more seconds and after a few hundred HMG bullets the Onos screamed out a shout of pain and disappeared. Being happy about that success I landed, reloaded and forgot about the ocs which were diligently spiking me. So I didn't have much time to enjoy the victory because I died just a few seconds later. Luckily, the other Jetpacker was more experienced and destroyed the hive which exploded in a blast of green, alien gore (I still could see that after my death). Some peeping sounds later we were all together in the readyroom and it was a gg. Everyone left including me and I was left alone with my new aqcuired experinces and impressions. 1.1's charme overwhelmed me completely.
The only other game I played back then which I remeber was a tanith round with 22 players. I was an alien and still not used to the new build. Of course I informed everyone about me being new, they welcomed me (there is a really nice atmosphere between PTs, vets and devs since I joined) and then I started to explore the new alien world of 1.1. Skulk animations and rotations looked really funny and I couldn't get used to the new menue as well. Moreover, I coudln't kill anyone but that didn't bother me. What was really striking from the very beginning was, once again, the hud. The blips which symbolize aliens, hives, marines etc. looked like sparkling stars in different colours and had something magical. Together with the new sounds, a mystical atmosphere of alienation was created.
I needed about a week of playing to get into 1.1. First, I was a bit frustrated by 1.1 and I did not have much fun playing it. I felt like a complete n00b and I could not get the twist of the game. After some time though, I started to realize how much more intense, diverse and different the new version was, how many new features there were and I became more and more impressed by Flayra's work. When playing 1.04 again (in clanwars) I felt like I came back to something I got used to and something very familiar. Yet, it felt old and obsolete and I was happy to play 1.1 again, no matter how many bugs and how many imbalances there were.
There are only 2 things that still bug me: We still lack a European server and my ping is horrible; and the servers only start to fill up at 20 pm my time. So in order to get a lot of decent games I have to stay up until 7 am. But it was worth it every time I did so.
So as you can see, 2.0 will be completely boring, the gameplay will be simple and playing will be dull. I suggest you switch to DoD as soon as possible, or better to SuperTetris3000Deluxe.
(btw, I realized after some time that the small pictures in the top left corner show you everything the comm drops. Very neat. :-) And note that I described 1.1s only)
We were only 6 and the map was eclipse. "Fine", I thought, "at least not a new map and I'll get into it very quickly". First thing I realized was that the ready room looked like the Computer Core Hive area. I joined the marine side and reinforced in Computer Core (that was obviously one of the few relocations I've seen in 1.1/2.0). Something was wrong with the colours, everything was so sparkling red and I heard the ringing of nearby sentries, yet I couldn't see any. Not exactly sure what to expect from the new build, I wasn't too confused at that moment and just decided to get some ammo and move out. When leaving CC I suddenly realized there were some small, black buildings all around the place. "Oh, the turrets got smaller, I read that in the Changelog. How cute they look!" were my thoughts. But I had no time to think about those sentries for a long time, because suddenly some strange pictures appeared in the top left corner if my hud. I didn't really realize what they were, but then I started to concentrate on my HUD. I knew something bugged me the second I joined the game and now I realized what it was: There was some kind of blue circle right in the middle of my screen, where a tiny cross used to be. "Ah ye, new crosshairs, right". So I changed my weapon to pistol and watched that new crosshair as well (Unfortunately I do not remember how it looked like because I replaced all new crosshairs with the old ones some days later. They obscure the sight too much).
Getting more interested into those new cosmetic changes, I remembered that I've read somewhere that a new pistol RoF was implemented. And so I decided to make some shots into the wall. I didn't expect the feedback I got, though. There was still no RoF of a pistol, but the new sounds were striking. The pistol sounded like a toy gun with a silencer. "Sweet sounds, sweet sentries; what a cute new version!" were my thoughts when I continued to walk into the direction of South loop. The small pictures were still constantly popping up in the corner of my hud and disappeared again. I thought I saw a medpack there, but I wasn't sure. Anyway, when I reached Southloop I was a bit confused because the tunnel leading to Maintenance was missing. So I went up to Keyhole and, voilà!, there was a new entrance to the hive. Not expecting anything serious and continued my way when suddenly an onos de-cloaked right in front of me. I knew from the forums that onos were going rampant in 1.1 and that sensories were excellent for sneaky attacks, yet the shock-effect was still present. I started to jump around like crazy, shooting into the onos with my toy gun, but the jumping only slowed me down and I died 2 seconds later. When dieing, I realized that structures decloaked right behind the onos, where my not very well aimed bullets hit.
"Oh, that's not as cute as I thought, this is going to be really different from what I knew about NS". Having reinforced in CC again I found a jetpack and an HMG lying around so I took them, loaded some ammo, and flew back into Maintanence. At least that's what I thought, but 'flying' wasn't really like I expected. "New Jetpack, ye, how could I've forgotten that". I couldn't stay in the air and I couldn't hover through the tunnels as I used to, but I eagerly continued my way to take revenge. In SL I already heard the sounds of a fight going on and I increased my pace just to find another Jetpacker fighting a berserked Onos between OCs which were trying to spike him and the hive emitting umbra every few seconds. I had no time to concentrate my sight on the new, smaller ocs (very cute as well, by the way) and on the decloaking effects because I tried to fly around the onos and to bring him down. Yet, I had to land every few seconds, I didn't really get the twist of the Jetpack. Fortunately, the Onos didn't get the twist of killing me either, so after a few more seconds and after a few hundred HMG bullets the Onos screamed out a shout of pain and disappeared. Being happy about that success I landed, reloaded and forgot about the ocs which were diligently spiking me. So I didn't have much time to enjoy the victory because I died just a few seconds later. Luckily, the other Jetpacker was more experienced and destroyed the hive which exploded in a blast of green, alien gore (I still could see that after my death). Some peeping sounds later we were all together in the readyroom and it was a gg. Everyone left including me and I was left alone with my new aqcuired experinces and impressions. 1.1's charme overwhelmed me completely.
The only other game I played back then which I remeber was a tanith round with 22 players. I was an alien and still not used to the new build. Of course I informed everyone about me being new, they welcomed me (there is a really nice atmosphere between PTs, vets and devs since I joined) and then I started to explore the new alien world of 1.1. Skulk animations and rotations looked really funny and I couldn't get used to the new menue as well. Moreover, I coudln't kill anyone but that didn't bother me. What was really striking from the very beginning was, once again, the hud. The blips which symbolize aliens, hives, marines etc. looked like sparkling stars in different colours and had something magical. Together with the new sounds, a mystical atmosphere of alienation was created.
I needed about a week of playing to get into 1.1. First, I was a bit frustrated by 1.1 and I did not have much fun playing it. I felt like a complete n00b and I could not get the twist of the game. After some time though, I started to realize how much more intense, diverse and different the new version was, how many new features there were and I became more and more impressed by Flayra's work. When playing 1.04 again (in clanwars) I felt like I came back to something I got used to and something very familiar. Yet, it felt old and obsolete and I was happy to play 1.1 again, no matter how many bugs and how many imbalances there were.
There are only 2 things that still bug me: We still lack a European server and my ping is horrible; and the servers only start to fill up at 20 pm my time. So in order to get a lot of decent games I have to stay up until 7 am. But it was worth it every time I did so.
So as you can see, 2.0 will be completely boring, the gameplay will be simple and playing will be dull. I suggest you switch to DoD as soon as possible, or better to SuperTetris3000Deluxe.
(btw, I realized after some time that the small pictures in the top left corner show you everything the comm drops. Very neat. :-) And note that I described 1.1s only)
Comments
Just a thought, why not just remove the acceleration that comes with strafe-jumping? so that you can strafe-jump but it wont get any faster..
Just a thought, why not just remove the acceleration that comes with strafe-jumping? so that you can strafe-jump but it wont get any faster.. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
please actually try 2.0 before you make <b>any</b> comments on how a new feature will or will not improve the game play.
Thank you.
<!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
I'm just saying it's a crappy way to deal with strafe-jumping
Don't know you like this <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Movement:
* Silence -- Silences all sounds, including attacks. A superb advantage
* Celerity -- The trusted fast paced friend. Good for phattehs, skulks and onos
* Adrenaline - The staple upgrade for fades, lerks, and combat wombats
- Increases spawn time when built in range of hive
- Increases fire rate of neaby OCs
- Increases adrenaline recharge of nearby units
- Increases build rate of nearby Gorges
- Teleports to hive currently under attack<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Sounds like the uber chamber of choice for aliens in v2.0. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
Thanks for posting that, it was an intersting read. Looks as though ns 2.0 is going to pwn most of half-life as we know it <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I'm just saying it's a crappy way to deal with strafe-jumping <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
I had my reservations about this new feature as well, and there has been a lot of controversy about it already.
But after playing I realized that it does not reduce the depth of marine gameplay. Fighting is still very intense and you are able to dodge skulk attacks easily, yet you cannot jump several times in a row. Moreover, you have to find a balance between jumping,. strafing and other methods of movement during a fight. So don't worry, it's quite fine as it is, although I really miss the bunnyhop <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Movement:
* Silence -- Silences all sounds, including attacks. A superb advantage
* Celerity -- The trusted fast paced friend. Good for phattehs, skulks and onos
* Adrenaline - The staple upgrade for fades, lerks, and combat wombats
- Increases spawn time when built in range of hive
- Increases fire rate of neaby OCs
- Increases adrenaline recharge of nearby units
- Increases build rate of nearby Gorges
- Teleports to hive currently under attack<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Sounds like the uber chamber of choice for aliens in v2.0. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
I feel this'll become some kind of religious conflict between the followers of the allmighty sense and the worshippers of the incredible movement.
The nice thing about 2.0s aliens is that they really give you that 'superpower' feeling: You're allowed to do things that would be flat-out cheating in other games. Faster, stronger, silent, wallhacking; you can do it all, and, provided we do our job right, it'll all still be balanced <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
By the way, great read, Egg.
Just a thought, why not just remove the acceleration that comes with strafe-jumping? so that you can strafe-jump but it wont get any faster.. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
This isn't the place to argue about this :-\
Thinking about it makes me feel all warm and cozy inside, like a when a cute puppy/kitten/gorge looks at you and you just feel that "AWWW" feeling <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
<img src='http://www.augustacountyspca.freeservers.com/kittens.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image'>