Problems And Solutions (ideas)
JAW
Join Date: 2004-03-26 Member: 27545Members
Join Date: 2004-03-26 Member: 27545Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Gameplay and Balance Issues</div> <b>------------
Introduction
------------</b>
This article is very long. I am a newbie, but i made some experiences.
There are a lot of things already mentioned here or there, but i
post them again. This is a collection of problems i found out myself
and many are already mentioned here, so its not just my personal
opinion. I brought it together and i have a rack of solution ideas.
Many ideas probably dont do it, but maybe they are an inspiration.
And maybe knowing the problems already does some servive to the team.
Its a very great mod and i'd like to see it improve because at
the moment there are some issues that reduce gaming fun.
I hope this post is of use to all you and is not too bad. I am
also new to this forum and i hope you can forgive me, when some
things in this post are wrong some way.
<b>-----------
Experiences
-----------</b>
I made some fresh and, I think, objective
experiences with NS. One day i played about 8 NS matches, and
each time marines won, basically the same way:
1) Marines develop a defended base. Usually a lot of sentry guns
come far faster than a lot of Lerks and Fades capable to
destroy sentrys and marines at once.
So very quickly a fortified marine base is indestructible because
aliens cannot evolve as fast as marines. To get 3 Fades with some
evolutions, 3 players need to get about 80 res together, mainly
by killing, because alien res flow from RTs is not much. Lets say
50 res by killing makes about 25 kills needed.
Until a Skulk made 25 kills, the marine team probably has some sentrys
up.
2) Marines develop at least one good squad of always 4 or more players.
This Squad gets its own forward base and cannot be defeated, usually.
4 to 6 marines, 4 sentrys are usually up against 7 or 8 Skulks and not
more than 3 Players as Lerk, Fade or Onos. Aliens do not attack together and
one alone has no chance.
3) Marine team is now good supported, has many upgrades, grenades, weapons,
armor. They stick together. The alien players died a few times, all are
Skulks, low on res and no marine is alone so no easy kills or res.
The 2 or 3 res towers the aliens might have are very hard to defend with a few skulks
and some offense chambers.
4) The marines usually fortify in a passage to the Hive, build up some
sentrys there. We then have a marine team at the hive door, sentrys,
a teleporter, 3 marine spawns and about 4 marines at least always
present.
Meaning this outpost is indestructable for 10 Skulks, Marines
spawn 3 per 10 seconds and are teleported back in no time. Aliens
are Skulks on less than 10 ressources and there is no way to get the
marines out of this place. No lesser alien can shoot, only Hive 1
abilities are available, and you never get close enough to bite.
5) Marines shoot grenades around the corner, aliens are all dead, one spawns
every 7 secs. When he survives the grenades everywhere he might at least
move some meters. He can either hide or try to attack and die.
End of the story 8 games, 8 marine victories, 8 times a team
out of Skulks withour res, then dead Skulks respawning one by one,
completely hopeless.
This mod generallys has a long dying period, i wonder why the
"surrender" option was denied??
In CO mode, one side controls
the spawn and it takes a few minutes to destroy the respawn.
During this time the losing team spawns one by one to get killed
instantly. Just a matter of sitting and watching.
The NS mode does the same, one team dominates and the other
team mainly spectates its slow death.
<b>---------------
Basic Framework
---------------</b>
This experiences are based on the following facts:
- Public servers
- 20 Players
- No clans or organizations
- Mostly low and moderate skilled players
Many of the following things are in relation to player number or
skill and to the lack of any team organisation.
<b>----------------
Ressource Issues
----------------</b>
Ressource gathering and use
The Marine Team can use 100% of the ressources for building and upgrading, obiously because
all ressources belong to the team / commander.
The aliens divide ressources. Only Gorges can build. Consider to have 2 Gorges out of 10
Alien Players, so each Gorge receives every tenth ressource (Meaning the human
commander can build 10 times as effective as one Gorge). Gorges usually dont kill, so
the only way to get res are the RTs.
->
Marines:
All ressources from RTs and kills can be spent for building or upgrading, just as needed.
Aliens:
Builders dont get kill ressources, only a fragment of all ressources can be used for
building or evolution, usually not nearly as optimal spent as in the marine team.
<i>*** Solution ideas: ***</i>
- Marines get personal ressources too, the commander just sets the building
locations or weapon bays, marines build and buy weapons with own ressources.
- Alien Gorges get extra ressources from RTs.
- Aliens have personal and collective ressources. Personal ressources
for evolutions and collective ressources for buildings.
- Aliens could "infest" marine res collectors and gain extra ressources
from the marine collector. The infestation only becomes visible
with scanner sweep or welder repair. The marines do not get less ressources,
the aliens just get extra ones, maybe only every 8 secs. This would boost alien
res income a little.
Besides a Marine Team usually kills far more Aliens than Aliens kill Marines.
There are a lot of desperate Skulks around trying to make a bite, and each of
these attempts brings some res to the Marines. Only a moderate Marine Squad
without a base can take 10 or more Skulks before it is erased. This would
mean that marines basically gain 3 time the ressources from killing.
If any Alien happens to make many kills, he gets the ressources alone. So while
killing a stupid Skulk is of use for everyone, killing a marine is just good
for the lucky killer. And basically a good Alien player who managed to
spend 50 to 80 or more ressources into his fade and evolve it doesnt
need all the ressources he gains for killing.
This would say that a high ammount, maybe 2/3, of ressources gained
for killing goes to players who dont need ressources at all.
While the weak players remain weak, chanceless.
<i>*** Solution ideas: ***</i>
- Skulks could get more ressources for kills.
- EVERY Alien gets 1 res for a kill ANY Alien does. So the Aliens would have
shared profit in kills, just as the marines. And I do not think that the aliens
would get an overadvantage through this.
Individual upgrade time
Consider the commander already developed some upgrades. He gets 1 Res per RT every
4 seconds and 1-3 res for each kill. Ignoring the one time investments for building
and researching upgrades of armor and damage or grenades, a weapon costs 15 or 20
and an heavy armor 15.
This makes a very strong marine for 30 res.
Aliens do not get anything close to that for 30 res.
<i>*** Solution Ideas: ***</i>
- Alter costs, reduce Alien res costs or raise Marine Item costs. Id rather
reduce Alien res costs, but i also sense another misbalance for the aliens, when
they are too cheap.
<b>--------------
Upgrade Issues
--------------</b>
Marines:
Many upgrades like Armor, Damage, Grenades are
a) for ALL marines
b) permanent
Aliens:
a) upgrades are individual
b) upgrades only last until death
When we devide the upgrade cost for Damage+1 through the number of marines, lets say
10 players, we see that an upgrade takes about 3 to 5 (10% of the upgrade research cost)
ressources per marine, takes effect for all marines at the same time and is permanent.
An alien evolution costs about 10 or more res (2 up to 5 times as much as an upgrade
for a single marine) and is only active until death.
-> Playing 20 lifes with a marine with Damage+1 and Armor+1 costs less than
10 res ONCE for one marine
Playing 20 lifes with a skulk and 2 evolutions costs about 20 res per life
makes 400 res in sum.
Quite a difference
<i>
*** Solution ideas: ***</i>
- Find a middle between CS and NS play, evolutions could be permanent and for
all aliens, but be more expensive. Evolutions could then be build by aliens together.
Each alien can spend ressources into evolution as he pleases and when the needed
sum is aquired, the evolution gets active for all players.
- Evolution buildings. Each Chamber is dedicated to a certain evoltuion. Make it
more expensive like 30 res or so. Give it a breeding time (just like research time)
until the chamber is completely developed. When the Chamber is done, the
evolution is active for every alien as long as the chamber lives.
When it is destroyed, the evolution is lost. Either instantly or after
death of the alien.
<b>
----------------
Teamwork factors
----------------</b>
Marines combine FAR FAR better than Aliens.
The difference between 1 and 3 Marines is far greater than the difference
between 1 and 3 Skulks.
Factor 1: Movement
Marines move slower and usually move on the ground. This makes combined coordination
easy.
Aliens move on walls, fly around and such, they are much smaller and faster, coordination
of multiple aliens is hard.
<i>*** Solution ideas: ***</i>
- Each alien could make some kind of ambush mark on the ground. Each Alien
around could see it and wait with its attack until the marines are on
the mark. It is invisible to marines.
- Each alien could trigger an attack timer that becomes visible
to aliens around so that everyone can attack on 0.
Factor 2: Central Commander
A Commander has a clear mind and good overview, he can coordinate and group
his marines.
Aliens have no central organisator who would give them waypoints or could
coordinate a simultanous attack of multiple aliens.
When the Marine team needs some players somewhere, the commander just leads them there.
If these players dont follow, the commander just chooses some other marines.
When Aliens would need player somewhere to defend or attack, no one cares.
Noone tells where to go, noone can time or coordinate movement, hardly any
alien player really knows what and where happens at all around the map.
<i>*** Solution ideas: ***</i>
- Alien Commaner, maybe as "the mind". Central player that controls the aliens,
says Gorges where they could build, give Alien waypoints...
Factor 3: Weapons
Marines just stand together and shoot in the same direction. LMG, HMG or Shotgun
isnt that important in this case. Spraying damage over multiple attackes is just a slight
movemont of mouse to adjust the firing angle.
Aliens most times only have a bite attack. They must reach the marines and then bite like hell around.
Try to coordinate this.
In fact try to have 5 marines and 5 aliens perform the same attacks or defenses and you will easily see, that
marines work together far better than aliens could ever hope to do.
<i>*** Solution ideas: ***</i>
- Develop a ranged weapon for aliens on the basic level, meaning for Skulks, not too cheap.
Or introduce a new alien type, something between Skulk and Gorge, with light shooting ability, but
wallclimbing.
- Give Skulks some kind of "fog" ability, that allows them to attack hidden. With fog
the skulk could hope to reach the marines without getting hit or could hope to kill
just one and get away safe.
Factor 4: Damage and res cost
Even without any armor and upgrade, a HMG costs 15? res. So each marine can deal out some heavy
damage on range for only 15 res.
An alien, usually skulk, would need far more ressources to deal some better damage
than standard. Additionally, this damage isnt ranged.
Roughly said, the relation between res cost, damage dealt (per second or whatever), rate of fire (spray and pray
with HMG) and range for the two teams dont match.
<i>*** Solution ideas: ***</i>
- One way could be some alien weapons with limited ammo. Maybe like an bio grenade, you get only 1 or 2.
This gives some limited ability to attack on range, around corners and deal splash damage. Such a weapon
could be more powerful than the other alien range weapons, because it has only limited ammo.
Maybe Skulks or Gorges can evolve one shot of bio grenade for 10 res or so. That would give at least
some way to react on grenade launchers shooting around the corner into the spawn.
<b>
-----------
Base Issues
-----------</b>
A marine base is a fortress, having 4 or more Sentry Guns. All is build using the shared
ressources.
Aliens would have a hard time to develop an equal base, with 4 to 6 OCs.
<i>*** Solution ideas: ***</i>
- Aliens could use a more serious defense structure, that can really keep 2 or 3 marines
off. it could be more expensive and maybe just one of this defense structures is
allowed every x hundred units, so there is always just one at the same time, so no
spamming. Make it strong then and aliens could at least hold a position for some
time with it, and a Gorge might actually get some killes with it.
- Aliens could get some kind of bomb or anything as counterpart to the siege cannon.
Without 2 or 3 hives, the Aliens really lack the ability to deal some damage to a
good human base with some sentries and marines. Id rather prefer a bomb, i do
not like guns shooting long ranges trough walls, because usually these guns are good defended
and cannot be destroyed, so its a matter of time. A bomb is a one time thing. Feels more
fair.
3 Infantry spawns are far more easily created than 3 Hives.
- When one Gorge starts a Hive (needs no ressources to "start"), every alien can
spend ressources on the hive (from anywhere via meno, give it a "support new hive"
button or such), until all aliens together spent 40 res. Makes it somewhat easier
to get a new hive going and increases the alien factor of being everywhere.
I think this could make a great deal to the game. Marines can pretty good siege and
destroy one hive, if the aliens are more flexible and fast at building new hives,
a greater and longer hunt can develop and the strong marines would be
forced to divide and attack more hives at the same time. This could do a great
change to gameplay, when the marines cannot combine all forces on one spot.
Aliens would just retreat to a new hive then. The smaller marine teams would be
a little easier to defeat.
Marines can teleport.
The marine team can develop a base worth 100 or more ressources a dozen times easier
than the alien team. You would need a lot of Gorges with much Ressources.
<b>---------------
Building Issues
---------------</b>
Marines can build AND fight.
A Gorge cant fight and a Skulk cant build.
ANY Marine can build, whenever he is in the position. So even a heavy marine with HMG can
do some building work.
But only Gorges can build. And a Fade or Onos will not give up his existence to
evolve to Gorge.
So Marine heavy combat classes can build, Alien heavy combat classes cannot build.
<i>
*** Solution idea: ***</i>
- Every Skulk can build, remove the Gorge and give the Aliens a moderate
Fighter class for 15 to 20 Ressources. This would be a solution for the poor
players that die, spawn on low ressources, cannot kill as skulk and cannot
afford a Fade. This medium alien could make it against 2 marines or
would have some sudden ambush attack for a hit and run tactic. I am just thinking
of a squad of 4 or 5 marines, the alien appears from his hiding, snaps one
marine with tentacles or so, and is away as fast as it appeared.
Would add some more creepy horror for marines additionally.
This type would then be weak, good when hidden, dead when spot.
Gorges are a one way street. A Gorge can spent res but hardly gets any. So if he spent all
his res, its over. A Player with 50 res must decide whether to evolve as a Fade or
Lerk or if he rather builds 5 buildings. Most players choose the Fade.
Marines can build and fight, just as needed. No sacrifices required, they dont lose
their weapon or armor and the ressources used do not really effect their combat strength.
<i>
*** Soultion idea: ***</i>
- A Gorge spawns with a certain ammount of building ressources, like 50. He can build
until all is spent. Then he evolves back to Skulk or anything.
This works only once, so a player can not go Skulk and back to Gorge and have
another 50 building res.
Either he would have to collect some sort of item or attach to a res tower or so, to
refill building res.
Another way would be to regenerate building ressoures generally at 1 every 5 secs or so.
We would need a mechanism to prohibit building spam then, so regenration should
become slower as one player builds, or each player has a building maximum. So
aliens can build independent from res income (and faster), "building" res refresh automatically.
"Normal" res are only spent for evolution and come on the usual way, killing and RTs.
<b>-------------
Weapon Issues
-------------</b>
Marines have Guns and Grenades. Aliens have bites. Their few shooting abilities are
relatively weak and have a slow rate of fire. And in many cases they lack the number
of hives needed.
<b>-------------
End Statement
-------------</b>
- I am not english, so please regret langauge problems.
- This post is seriously meant to show up some game balance problems and some
ideas and innovations, i had in mind. I mean to help the dev team and improve
this good mod to make it even better. I really hope that you dont find this post
annoying or disturbing, i would really regret it.
Any reply is higly appreciated.
Have fun, bye
-JAW
Introduction
------------</b>
This article is very long. I am a newbie, but i made some experiences.
There are a lot of things already mentioned here or there, but i
post them again. This is a collection of problems i found out myself
and many are already mentioned here, so its not just my personal
opinion. I brought it together and i have a rack of solution ideas.
Many ideas probably dont do it, but maybe they are an inspiration.
And maybe knowing the problems already does some servive to the team.
Its a very great mod and i'd like to see it improve because at
the moment there are some issues that reduce gaming fun.
I hope this post is of use to all you and is not too bad. I am
also new to this forum and i hope you can forgive me, when some
things in this post are wrong some way.
<b>-----------
Experiences
-----------</b>
I made some fresh and, I think, objective
experiences with NS. One day i played about 8 NS matches, and
each time marines won, basically the same way:
1) Marines develop a defended base. Usually a lot of sentry guns
come far faster than a lot of Lerks and Fades capable to
destroy sentrys and marines at once.
So very quickly a fortified marine base is indestructible because
aliens cannot evolve as fast as marines. To get 3 Fades with some
evolutions, 3 players need to get about 80 res together, mainly
by killing, because alien res flow from RTs is not much. Lets say
50 res by killing makes about 25 kills needed.
Until a Skulk made 25 kills, the marine team probably has some sentrys
up.
2) Marines develop at least one good squad of always 4 or more players.
This Squad gets its own forward base and cannot be defeated, usually.
4 to 6 marines, 4 sentrys are usually up against 7 or 8 Skulks and not
more than 3 Players as Lerk, Fade or Onos. Aliens do not attack together and
one alone has no chance.
3) Marine team is now good supported, has many upgrades, grenades, weapons,
armor. They stick together. The alien players died a few times, all are
Skulks, low on res and no marine is alone so no easy kills or res.
The 2 or 3 res towers the aliens might have are very hard to defend with a few skulks
and some offense chambers.
4) The marines usually fortify in a passage to the Hive, build up some
sentrys there. We then have a marine team at the hive door, sentrys,
a teleporter, 3 marine spawns and about 4 marines at least always
present.
Meaning this outpost is indestructable for 10 Skulks, Marines
spawn 3 per 10 seconds and are teleported back in no time. Aliens
are Skulks on less than 10 ressources and there is no way to get the
marines out of this place. No lesser alien can shoot, only Hive 1
abilities are available, and you never get close enough to bite.
5) Marines shoot grenades around the corner, aliens are all dead, one spawns
every 7 secs. When he survives the grenades everywhere he might at least
move some meters. He can either hide or try to attack and die.
End of the story 8 games, 8 marine victories, 8 times a team
out of Skulks withour res, then dead Skulks respawning one by one,
completely hopeless.
This mod generallys has a long dying period, i wonder why the
"surrender" option was denied??
In CO mode, one side controls
the spawn and it takes a few minutes to destroy the respawn.
During this time the losing team spawns one by one to get killed
instantly. Just a matter of sitting and watching.
The NS mode does the same, one team dominates and the other
team mainly spectates its slow death.
<b>---------------
Basic Framework
---------------</b>
This experiences are based on the following facts:
- Public servers
- 20 Players
- No clans or organizations
- Mostly low and moderate skilled players
Many of the following things are in relation to player number or
skill and to the lack of any team organisation.
<b>----------------
Ressource Issues
----------------</b>
Ressource gathering and use
The Marine Team can use 100% of the ressources for building and upgrading, obiously because
all ressources belong to the team / commander.
The aliens divide ressources. Only Gorges can build. Consider to have 2 Gorges out of 10
Alien Players, so each Gorge receives every tenth ressource (Meaning the human
commander can build 10 times as effective as one Gorge). Gorges usually dont kill, so
the only way to get res are the RTs.
->
Marines:
All ressources from RTs and kills can be spent for building or upgrading, just as needed.
Aliens:
Builders dont get kill ressources, only a fragment of all ressources can be used for
building or evolution, usually not nearly as optimal spent as in the marine team.
<i>*** Solution ideas: ***</i>
- Marines get personal ressources too, the commander just sets the building
locations or weapon bays, marines build and buy weapons with own ressources.
- Alien Gorges get extra ressources from RTs.
- Aliens have personal and collective ressources. Personal ressources
for evolutions and collective ressources for buildings.
- Aliens could "infest" marine res collectors and gain extra ressources
from the marine collector. The infestation only becomes visible
with scanner sweep or welder repair. The marines do not get less ressources,
the aliens just get extra ones, maybe only every 8 secs. This would boost alien
res income a little.
Besides a Marine Team usually kills far more Aliens than Aliens kill Marines.
There are a lot of desperate Skulks around trying to make a bite, and each of
these attempts brings some res to the Marines. Only a moderate Marine Squad
without a base can take 10 or more Skulks before it is erased. This would
mean that marines basically gain 3 time the ressources from killing.
If any Alien happens to make many kills, he gets the ressources alone. So while
killing a stupid Skulk is of use for everyone, killing a marine is just good
for the lucky killer. And basically a good Alien player who managed to
spend 50 to 80 or more ressources into his fade and evolve it doesnt
need all the ressources he gains for killing.
This would say that a high ammount, maybe 2/3, of ressources gained
for killing goes to players who dont need ressources at all.
While the weak players remain weak, chanceless.
<i>*** Solution ideas: ***</i>
- Skulks could get more ressources for kills.
- EVERY Alien gets 1 res for a kill ANY Alien does. So the Aliens would have
shared profit in kills, just as the marines. And I do not think that the aliens
would get an overadvantage through this.
Individual upgrade time
Consider the commander already developed some upgrades. He gets 1 Res per RT every
4 seconds and 1-3 res for each kill. Ignoring the one time investments for building
and researching upgrades of armor and damage or grenades, a weapon costs 15 or 20
and an heavy armor 15.
This makes a very strong marine for 30 res.
Aliens do not get anything close to that for 30 res.
<i>*** Solution Ideas: ***</i>
- Alter costs, reduce Alien res costs or raise Marine Item costs. Id rather
reduce Alien res costs, but i also sense another misbalance for the aliens, when
they are too cheap.
<b>--------------
Upgrade Issues
--------------</b>
Marines:
Many upgrades like Armor, Damage, Grenades are
a) for ALL marines
b) permanent
Aliens:
a) upgrades are individual
b) upgrades only last until death
When we devide the upgrade cost for Damage+1 through the number of marines, lets say
10 players, we see that an upgrade takes about 3 to 5 (10% of the upgrade research cost)
ressources per marine, takes effect for all marines at the same time and is permanent.
An alien evolution costs about 10 or more res (2 up to 5 times as much as an upgrade
for a single marine) and is only active until death.
-> Playing 20 lifes with a marine with Damage+1 and Armor+1 costs less than
10 res ONCE for one marine
Playing 20 lifes with a skulk and 2 evolutions costs about 20 res per life
makes 400 res in sum.
Quite a difference
<i>
*** Solution ideas: ***</i>
- Find a middle between CS and NS play, evolutions could be permanent and for
all aliens, but be more expensive. Evolutions could then be build by aliens together.
Each alien can spend ressources into evolution as he pleases and when the needed
sum is aquired, the evolution gets active for all players.
- Evolution buildings. Each Chamber is dedicated to a certain evoltuion. Make it
more expensive like 30 res or so. Give it a breeding time (just like research time)
until the chamber is completely developed. When the Chamber is done, the
evolution is active for every alien as long as the chamber lives.
When it is destroyed, the evolution is lost. Either instantly or after
death of the alien.
<b>
----------------
Teamwork factors
----------------</b>
Marines combine FAR FAR better than Aliens.
The difference between 1 and 3 Marines is far greater than the difference
between 1 and 3 Skulks.
Factor 1: Movement
Marines move slower and usually move on the ground. This makes combined coordination
easy.
Aliens move on walls, fly around and such, they are much smaller and faster, coordination
of multiple aliens is hard.
<i>*** Solution ideas: ***</i>
- Each alien could make some kind of ambush mark on the ground. Each Alien
around could see it and wait with its attack until the marines are on
the mark. It is invisible to marines.
- Each alien could trigger an attack timer that becomes visible
to aliens around so that everyone can attack on 0.
Factor 2: Central Commander
A Commander has a clear mind and good overview, he can coordinate and group
his marines.
Aliens have no central organisator who would give them waypoints or could
coordinate a simultanous attack of multiple aliens.
When the Marine team needs some players somewhere, the commander just leads them there.
If these players dont follow, the commander just chooses some other marines.
When Aliens would need player somewhere to defend or attack, no one cares.
Noone tells where to go, noone can time or coordinate movement, hardly any
alien player really knows what and where happens at all around the map.
<i>*** Solution ideas: ***</i>
- Alien Commaner, maybe as "the mind". Central player that controls the aliens,
says Gorges where they could build, give Alien waypoints...
Factor 3: Weapons
Marines just stand together and shoot in the same direction. LMG, HMG or Shotgun
isnt that important in this case. Spraying damage over multiple attackes is just a slight
movemont of mouse to adjust the firing angle.
Aliens most times only have a bite attack. They must reach the marines and then bite like hell around.
Try to coordinate this.
In fact try to have 5 marines and 5 aliens perform the same attacks or defenses and you will easily see, that
marines work together far better than aliens could ever hope to do.
<i>*** Solution ideas: ***</i>
- Develop a ranged weapon for aliens on the basic level, meaning for Skulks, not too cheap.
Or introduce a new alien type, something between Skulk and Gorge, with light shooting ability, but
wallclimbing.
- Give Skulks some kind of "fog" ability, that allows them to attack hidden. With fog
the skulk could hope to reach the marines without getting hit or could hope to kill
just one and get away safe.
Factor 4: Damage and res cost
Even without any armor and upgrade, a HMG costs 15? res. So each marine can deal out some heavy
damage on range for only 15 res.
An alien, usually skulk, would need far more ressources to deal some better damage
than standard. Additionally, this damage isnt ranged.
Roughly said, the relation between res cost, damage dealt (per second or whatever), rate of fire (spray and pray
with HMG) and range for the two teams dont match.
<i>*** Solution ideas: ***</i>
- One way could be some alien weapons with limited ammo. Maybe like an bio grenade, you get only 1 or 2.
This gives some limited ability to attack on range, around corners and deal splash damage. Such a weapon
could be more powerful than the other alien range weapons, because it has only limited ammo.
Maybe Skulks or Gorges can evolve one shot of bio grenade for 10 res or so. That would give at least
some way to react on grenade launchers shooting around the corner into the spawn.
<b>
-----------
Base Issues
-----------</b>
A marine base is a fortress, having 4 or more Sentry Guns. All is build using the shared
ressources.
Aliens would have a hard time to develop an equal base, with 4 to 6 OCs.
<i>*** Solution ideas: ***</i>
- Aliens could use a more serious defense structure, that can really keep 2 or 3 marines
off. it could be more expensive and maybe just one of this defense structures is
allowed every x hundred units, so there is always just one at the same time, so no
spamming. Make it strong then and aliens could at least hold a position for some
time with it, and a Gorge might actually get some killes with it.
- Aliens could get some kind of bomb or anything as counterpart to the siege cannon.
Without 2 or 3 hives, the Aliens really lack the ability to deal some damage to a
good human base with some sentries and marines. Id rather prefer a bomb, i do
not like guns shooting long ranges trough walls, because usually these guns are good defended
and cannot be destroyed, so its a matter of time. A bomb is a one time thing. Feels more
fair.
3 Infantry spawns are far more easily created than 3 Hives.
- When one Gorge starts a Hive (needs no ressources to "start"), every alien can
spend ressources on the hive (from anywhere via meno, give it a "support new hive"
button or such), until all aliens together spent 40 res. Makes it somewhat easier
to get a new hive going and increases the alien factor of being everywhere.
I think this could make a great deal to the game. Marines can pretty good siege and
destroy one hive, if the aliens are more flexible and fast at building new hives,
a greater and longer hunt can develop and the strong marines would be
forced to divide and attack more hives at the same time. This could do a great
change to gameplay, when the marines cannot combine all forces on one spot.
Aliens would just retreat to a new hive then. The smaller marine teams would be
a little easier to defeat.
Marines can teleport.
The marine team can develop a base worth 100 or more ressources a dozen times easier
than the alien team. You would need a lot of Gorges with much Ressources.
<b>---------------
Building Issues
---------------</b>
Marines can build AND fight.
A Gorge cant fight and a Skulk cant build.
ANY Marine can build, whenever he is in the position. So even a heavy marine with HMG can
do some building work.
But only Gorges can build. And a Fade or Onos will not give up his existence to
evolve to Gorge.
So Marine heavy combat classes can build, Alien heavy combat classes cannot build.
<i>
*** Solution idea: ***</i>
- Every Skulk can build, remove the Gorge and give the Aliens a moderate
Fighter class for 15 to 20 Ressources. This would be a solution for the poor
players that die, spawn on low ressources, cannot kill as skulk and cannot
afford a Fade. This medium alien could make it against 2 marines or
would have some sudden ambush attack for a hit and run tactic. I am just thinking
of a squad of 4 or 5 marines, the alien appears from his hiding, snaps one
marine with tentacles or so, and is away as fast as it appeared.
Would add some more creepy horror for marines additionally.
This type would then be weak, good when hidden, dead when spot.
Gorges are a one way street. A Gorge can spent res but hardly gets any. So if he spent all
his res, its over. A Player with 50 res must decide whether to evolve as a Fade or
Lerk or if he rather builds 5 buildings. Most players choose the Fade.
Marines can build and fight, just as needed. No sacrifices required, they dont lose
their weapon or armor and the ressources used do not really effect their combat strength.
<i>
*** Soultion idea: ***</i>
- A Gorge spawns with a certain ammount of building ressources, like 50. He can build
until all is spent. Then he evolves back to Skulk or anything.
This works only once, so a player can not go Skulk and back to Gorge and have
another 50 building res.
Either he would have to collect some sort of item or attach to a res tower or so, to
refill building res.
Another way would be to regenerate building ressoures generally at 1 every 5 secs or so.
We would need a mechanism to prohibit building spam then, so regenration should
become slower as one player builds, or each player has a building maximum. So
aliens can build independent from res income (and faster), "building" res refresh automatically.
"Normal" res are only spent for evolution and come on the usual way, killing and RTs.
<b>-------------
Weapon Issues
-------------</b>
Marines have Guns and Grenades. Aliens have bites. Their few shooting abilities are
relatively weak and have a slow rate of fire. And in many cases they lack the number
of hives needed.
<b>-------------
End Statement
-------------</b>
- I am not english, so please regret langauge problems.
- This post is seriously meant to show up some game balance problems and some
ideas and innovations, i had in mind. I mean to help the dev team and improve
this good mod to make it even better. I really hope that you dont find this post
annoying or disturbing, i would really regret it.
Any reply is higly appreciated.
Have fun, bye
-JAW
Comments
come far faster than a lot of Lerks and Fades capable to
destroy sentrys and marines at once.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Actually, from my experience, this loses a game. If the marines stay in base, wasting their res one turrets, the aliens spread out and take nodes fast. A friendly fade or onos or bile bomb will quickly harvest the turret farm.
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->2) Marines develop at least one good squad of always 4 or more players.
This Squad gets its own forward base and cannot be defeated, usually.
4 to 6 marines, 4 sentrys are usually up against 7 or 8 Skulks and not
more than 3 Players as Lerk, Fade or Onos. Aliens do not attack together and
one alone has no chance.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Not 100% sure on what you mean here, but I assume it's the same as defending a hive or choke point (IE, Mess Hall). Though you're quiet wrong on the "Aliens do not attack together" part. At least on the server I reg on. A cara/cerelity fade (my fade of choice) with a bit of back up can make short work of said outpost if a PG is not near or the Marines just have lvl0-1 LMGs.
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->3) Marine team is now good supported, has many upgrades, grenades, weapons,
armor. They stick together. The alien players died a few times, all are
Skulks, low on res and no marine is alone so no easy kills or res.
The 2 or 3 res towers the aliens might have are very hard to defend with a few skulks
and some offense chambers. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This is of course true if the marines have had total dominence throughout the whole game. Though your suggested strategy wouldnt really allow this, considering you'd have to stay in base spending res on turrets, then more res on outposts.
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->4) The marines usually fortify in a passage to the Hive, build up some
sentrys there. We then have a marine team at the hive door, sentrys,
a teleporter, 3 marine spawns and about 4 marines at least always
present.
Meaning this outpost is indestructable for 10 Skulks, Marines
spawn 3 per 10 seconds and are teleported back in no time. Aliens
are Skulks on less than 10 ressources and there is no way to get the
marines out of this place. No lesser alien can shoot, only Hive 1
abilities are available, and you never get close enough to bite.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Again, this is only really going to happen if all went well and you are up against a very crappy alien team.
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->5) Marines shoot grenades around the corner, aliens are all dead, one spawns
every 7 secs. When he survives the grenades everywhere he might at least
move some meters. He can either hide or try to attack and die.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
See above response. And remember there is always more than one exit from a hive. Usually 2 main exits and a vent.
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->End of the story 8 games, 8 marine victories, 8 times a team
out of Skulks withour res, then dead Skulks respawning one by one,
completely hopeless.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
You must have been against an alien team that had very VERY poor teamwork and coordination. Because the amount of time/res your team stayed in base at the begining would usually mean defeat.
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->This experiences are based on the following facts:
- Public servers
- 20 Players
- No clans or organizations
- Mostly low and moderate skilled players
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
a 10v10, the marines usually have the upper hand unless the aliens are very well coordinated (IE, dropping res/upgrades fast and going back to skulk save a few gorges). And the "Mostly low and moderate skilled players" basically backs up my entire point.
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->- Marines get personal ressources too, the commander just sets the building
locations or weapon bays, marines build and buy weapons with own ressources.
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This would pretty much make NS Classic more like CO... Which a lot of people do not want. This would make the marines a bit more over powered, and take away a lot of the fun in commanding.
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->- Alien Gorges get extra ressources from RTs.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
When you say this, I highly doubt you mean in the 1.0x way that for every 1 res that skulks etc recieved, the gorges recieved 3. What you propose - I believe - is that gorges get this extra res out of no where, which would be explioted by people going gorge and sitting around getting extra res.
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->- Aliens have personal and collective ressources. Personal ressources
for evolutions and collective ressources for buildings.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That really wouldnt work well, and would be ruined by inexperienced players. For instance, say in a game we have the marines pushed back near their base, and a gorge is building OCs in some random hall, ill tell him to stop wasting res because they aint going to be reaching that hallway anytime soon.
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->- Aliens could "infest" marine res collectors and gain extra ressources
from the marine collector. The infestation only becomes visible
with scanner sweep or welder repair. The marines do not get less ressources,
the aliens just get extra ones, maybe only every 8 secs. This would boost alien
res income a little.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I want to say this is a good idea, because it actually is, but the way the aliens recieve res is fine as it is.
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->- Skulks could get more ressources for kills.
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
No.
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->- EVERY Alien gets 1 res for a kill ANY Alien does. So the Aliens would have
shared profit in kills, just as the marines. And I do not think that the aliens
would get an overadvantage through this.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Again; No. This would make the aliens over powered as they will be getting res way to fast. The whole idea behind the aliens in a hybrid of both independence and teamwork. Independence in the sense that you can ambush a pack of marines, evade and kill them because you're small and agile and also independence that you "control your own destiny" in a sense, and teamwork that there are support units (lerk) and you need constant communication for 'hive/structure/resource tower/lifeform under attack" and rush to save it/them
I know there are more ideas that you have said, but I've already said my point.
You're judging that the NS team should change much of how both teams work because you played against a very crappy and poorly organized Alien team. Regardless of what you think, this is very uncommon, unless you're on a bad server at a bad time.
in short play on more servers then come back and post agian.
[QUOTE]Marines:
Many upgrades like Armor, Damage, Grenades are
a) for ALL marines
b) permanent
Aliens:
a) upgrades are individual
b) upgrades only last until death
[/QUOTE]
Yes, but you see, Marine upgrades cost far, faaaaar more than alien upgrades.
[quote]An alien evolution costs about 10 or more res (2 up to 5 times as much as an upgrade
for a single marine) and is only active until death.[/quote]
I have no clue what game you're playing, but the NS I'm used to, upgrades are only 2 res. I think you're confusing "Upgrades" with "Upgrade chambers"
[quote]-> Playing 20 lifes with a marine with Damage+1 and Armor+1 costs less than
10 res ONCE for one marine
Playing 20 lifes with a skulk and 2 evolutions costs about 20 res per life
makes 400 res in sum.[/quote]
Again, I have NO clue what game you're playing here. You've obviously only been playing NS for 3 days to get upgrades and up chambers confused.
[quote]Marines combine FAR FAR better than Aliens.
The difference between 1 and 3 Marines is far greater than the difference
between 1 and 3 Skulks.
[/quote]
Ok, you made sense on your first sentence, because as you'd learn if you played longer, Marines are <i>suppose</i> to work as a team to be succsessful. Though then you say the second part. 3 marines vs 3 skulks in a room 65% of the time means dead marines.
[quote]Aliens move on walls, fly around and such, they are much smaller and faster, coordination
of multiple aliens is hard.[/quote]
Again, you havent played very long, nor have you played against a very good alien team. Find a better server, and this will change.
[quote]Aliens have no central organisator who would give them waypoints or could
coordinate a simultanous attack of multiple aliens.[/quote]
as I have said in another thread, the aliens have two things. Hive sight, which tells them what's going down, and two little things that I like to call "teamspeak" and "Voice chat". IE Thrillhouse pressed ctl and talks into his mic saying "Get to South loop, 3 rines one with a shotty". Skulks go and kill.
[quote]When the Marine team needs some players somewhere, the commander just leads them there.
If these players dont follow, the commander just chooses some other marines.
[/quote]
Ummm, not true. You've never commanded and never experienced the frustration of someone <i>not</i> following your waypoints. People who dont follow way points generally ef (I curse like an old man, so this is odd for me to write that) up my entire agenda.
[quote]When Aliens would need player somewhere to defend or attack, no one cares.
Noone tells where to go, noone can time or coordinate movement, hardly any
alien player really knows what and where happens at all around the map.[/quote]
Ok, I'm sorry, but as I keep typing responses, I less want to explain how you're wrong, and moreso want to just tell you you're a "stupid noob". But that would just make me seem like a dickwad. So for like the 45634th time, I will say play on a better server, and stop judging all of NS on a bunch of games with crappy players.
[quote]Factor 3: Weapons
[/quote]
I'm not going to bother to quote the entire thing, but you must understand that when there is a room of 3 marines, as a skulk, you just dont walk in and hope they miss. If you have it - you leap. If you dont, you bunny hop and wall jump and get in the middle of them all.
Yet again, play more before you suggest anything.
[quote]Even without any armor and upgrade, a HMG costs 15? res. So each marine can deal out some heavy
damage on range for only 15 res.
An alien, usually skulk, would need far more ressources to deal some better damage
than standard. Additionally, this damage isnt ranged.
Roughly said, the relation between res cost, damage dealt (per second or whatever), rate of fire (spray and pray
with HMG) and range for the two teams dont match.
[/quote]
Ok, now I'm just starting to think that you cant think of more than one scenerio at once. You see, when the marines have the capability of HMGs, the kharaa also have at least hive2 capabilities and some fades. Even if the first thing the commander does is up the armoury when the game starts, he's still going to be short on res, and as such there's going to be few HMGs that are <i>not</i> upgraded.
[quote]
A marine base is a fortress, having <b>4</b> or more Sentry Guns.[/quote]
AAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
You're joking right?
[quote]Aliens would have a hard time to develop an equal base, with 4 to 6 OCs.
[/quote]
That is because the actual alien units are better base defence to their hive than the marines are to their own base.
[quote]3 Infantry spawns are far more easily created than 3 Hives./quote]
....
Ok... See, here's the thing. I started out by being polite and nice, but with each response I make, the more overwhelmed with stupid I am. I understand you are new to NS, and that I have been playing for 2 and a half years, but you must understand. 3 IPs do jack all compared to what 3 hives do. You see, IPs do not give the chance to get another upgrade chamber, or increase the effectiveness of armour or hive you new abilities. They just make you spawn faster.
FOr the millionth time... <b>PLAY LONGER BEFORE SAYING ANYTHING!</b>
[quote]Marines can teleport.
[/quote]
So can Aliens. It's called a movement chamber. You would know this if you <i>played longer before saying anything</i>
[quote]
Building Issues
blah blah blah blah[/quote]
Man, I totally made a mistake of continuing to respond to this thread....
[quote]Marines have Guns and Grenades. Aliens have bites. Their few shooting abilities are
relatively weak and have a slow rate of fire. And in many cases they lack the number
of hives needed.[/quote]
Aliens are fast and can evade bullets if you're <i>experienced</i>
But lets judge by your idea. Lets travel back in time, to an age where NS was but a puppy, his eyes full of gleam and joy. I time where everywhere you could here "OMG a turret factory? f4 $%^# noob com". A time where one skulk could kill 5 marines with ease. A time where the fade was greatly over powered because of his projectile abilities.
Ok, that last paragraph was nothing but sarcastic filth, save the last sentence, but the point it, the aliens dont have very many projectile weapons because it made them overpowered. And as I mentioned above, aliens are fast and close into the marines just as fast.
In conclusion; play more before saying anything because as of right now, your opinion is <b><i>VOID</i></b>
Love,
<i>Thrillhouse</i>
PS. I know I ended up turning into a huge a-hole at the end but you made my ehad hurt. It does not matter, we can still be friends. You can come over tomorrow and we can play tea party. Ill bring my teddy bears and Barbie dolls and you bring the GI Joes and Transformers. Afterwards we can watch Lizzie McGuire and talk about cute boys.
EDIT: I dont know why BBcode isnt working. Sorry, I know it hurts your eyes.
EDIT2: ok, it's working for bold and italics, but not quotes...
Youre right, my personal experience is limited, and mainly the servers had a low skill level with some few good players.
The problem then is that the good players quickly rack up kills and evolve to good aliens while lame players (like me) hardly get any kill and have no chance of getting a little stronger to improve their chances.
This turned out to be one drawback most times, the weak players have the weakest charactes, Skulks or standard marines. Some commanders do not bother to spent ressources for players who die anyways, so they are usually left alone with their LMG.
Picking up weapons from dead mates would be a way to get weapons, but this would outbalance the res system for weapons.
The res system, mainly on the alien side, makes me feel a little like CounterStrike. Good players have much money and are powerful, bad players have no money and are weak.
So the bad ones have even a harder time. This is a thing i like about mods like TFC or Day of Defeat, you spawn with a "good" weapon and have a faire chance, the power of your equipment is not connected to your performance.
I think if figured out a major misunderstanding on my site. I was playing alien several times, spawned with maybe about 10 res and wanted to evolve carapace or cloaking or such and the game said "not enough ressources". I wondered how much it would cost then.
In fact i think the team did not have the required chambers build. So i could not evolve because we didnt have the option, but i would have had enough res. The voice message "not enough res" was disturbing then.
The skill of the players does a great deal, and 4 sentrys are hard when all you have are some newbie skulks hardly playing together.
The reason why i posted this here is that on the one hand i have a few friends playing this mod having equal problems and having seen alot matches aliens loosing against marines. And there are multiple posts in this forum adressing the alien team, Gorge, Skulk or ressource problems.
As a bottom line i would then say, that NS is only very limited newbie friendly. You really have a hard time until you have some skill, you need a good server and some equally skilled teammates and opponents to have a good game.
Improving skill is hard playing a Skulk against heavy marines, and fun is limited when you always end up with 5 kills 30 deaths because the whole alien team just didnt do it.
The question then is whether NS will only adress skilled players and give newbies a hard time learining their lessons. CS is a very good way to get in and learn some controls and the game dynamics, but 10 on 10 its usually very spammed and chaotic after the first minutes. Respawning goes fast, both sides have their heavy armor and HMG or Fades and Onos and it is just a sloughter.
All in all it is a newbie point of view and i wonder if a game should only be balanced when the players are right. The skill of the player, the teammates
and the opponents has a very great impact on gameplay, far stronger than in other mods i know.
Finally, i will just play some more weeks and see what happens.
Would you rather advice me to take this post down or should i leave it?
Greetings
-JAW
Also, Thrillhouse, about the marine base being a fortress; he did not say WHEN they fortify those locations, but once it's up, aliens cannot take it back due of onos being too weak and rines + 6 turrets + electricity usually being too much for a fade.
Now, when considering his original post about res and choke-points, 1+1=... <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif' /><!--endemo-->
I consider the marines to have the most experienced player as comm. One skilled comm can really make a good team out of noobs and moderate players.
One good soldier anyway can still be the backbone of a squad and the noobs do some spraying fire or attacking aliens have to bite through some noobs before they can bite the real one.
One good alien player is just one good individual. But the rest of the team has only very limited advantage of one good alien. He alone cannot win, he can hardly form an organised group or make the team build usefully.
So just a few better players on a low to medium skill pub server can strongly improve the marine performance but would have limited effect for the alien team.
The more I consider the replys to my post the more i find out why the aliens always lost. They just all sucked. Low skill, low organisation, mainly all Skulks are just running around, some Gorges build randomly, not really considering what chamber the team would need, no coop of two or more players, no second hive, hardly any chat messages.
A good commander with 2 or 3 usefull marines and another handful of newbies could easily win against such an alien team.
I think the requirements for an alien team to win are somewhat higher. Aliens need more experience to effectively gather ressources, build chambers, evolve and keep marines at bay. The organisation and communication is harder.
Seeing some colored blips as collective mind is not nearly as effective as a commander. The fact that a commander is one fighter less doesnt make it up completely. One extra Skulk isnt just the key to victory.
Many alien players didnt read the manual good enough, and so didnt i either. I finally start to get the whole way it works with chambers, hives, levels and evolution. Building chambers and hives right really requires more skill, communication and teamwork as my alien teams had on the servers i have been.
I am looking forward to learn more,
thanks
-JAW
It's not that aliens can't win, it's that:
a.) Res comes slowly
b.) Teamwork is practically impossible to do on pubs
Even while he is not technically correct on much of what he says, you have to infer the meaning out of it and all over his main post I got that these were his general problems, which concindentally, I think everyone can pretty much agree on.
Actually, this is the BIGGEST things that was de-solved in the transition from 1.0x to 2.0x. If you think back to the 1.0x pub games, the single most ironic thing was that Aliens were the ones to pull the teamwork hax. I dont even need to describe it, if youve been there, you know its true.
What was different then? No, not because 'things were simply better back then'. It was the importance of hives, and the unimportance of the individual alien. You can kill all you want, but youre still getting onos when the rest of the team is. This meant that people didnt care as much for themselves, they fought for hives, they fought for the gorge, and they fought for the team. None of this early-nub-fade-who-dies-in-5-sec bs that we get now.
Pretty much all the major changes in 2.0 contributed to this:
-unchaining of evolution from hive - less hive importance
-lowered importance of gorge - (lesser) central command removed
-RFK - more importance of individual alien, and discourage self-sacrifice
-Improved Comm Interface - finally, the comm had something useful to work with <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
(3.0 extended this)-the destruction of alien communications (hivesight range, sight of enemies added to hivesight)
Teamwork was once there, it is not impossible. You just need to squeeze it outta them <!--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><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That is because you didnt have the upgrade chamber. You need an upgrade chamber to upgrade.
Infestation:
I would suggest that normal welding removes an infestation. So not every marine can remove it, it is not to easy to detect but also not expensive to remove. Its a strong advantage for the aliens at all, it shouldnt be any more powerful. I wonder if it might not be too much anyways, every skulk running around and infesting RTs.
In my todays games i had different situations, sometimes aliens even won. In the end it all depends on the res, just like in usual RTS Games. The team being good on res wins. It depends either on the commander and on the marines to some part, or up to the alien players, if they go for many res or not.
Most alien defeats were caused by a lack of ressources.
Sometimes the aliens seem to be better. Everyone goes around and many go Gorge, build a res tower and go back to Skulk.
Somewhat expensive though.
Sometimes the marines seem to be better and i consider it is more efficient when the commander places good RTs and Waypoints.
In the end you need one good comm or several good aliens to have a good res flow.
-JAW
If you don't wana work well together and talk to your teamates, u will lose. On rines, you don't have to communicate, just do what your told.