Overly Chatty Penguins

The Ready Room => General => Topic started by: pardzh on April 03, 2005, 08:13:22 PM

Title: 3.02 Release
Post by: pardzh on April 03, 2005, 08:13:22 PM: Quote
We present you with NS 3.0.2, a server-side update to 3.0. We have made the following balance changes:

- Reduced observatory cost from 20 to 15.
- Increased observatory starting energy to 40.
- Reduced Armslab cost from 25 to 20.
- Reduced Phase Gate transportation throttle rate from 0.8 to 0.5 seconds per player.

Server operators can download the patch here (http://download.jarhedz.com/ns_beta/direct/ns_dedicated_server_patch_v302.zip). You do not need to have 3.0.1 installed to run this update; if you do not plan to run a server, you don't need to download or install anything.

On a different note, this season's CAL Final matches are about to begin. We wish all contenders the best of luck, and encourage you to join the HLTV servers; watching Natural Selection play at these levels can be quite an experience.

Well, there it is.

I guess it helps Marines out a little bit. Kinda.

What do you guys think?
Title: 3.02 Release
Post by: 2_of_8 on April 03, 2005, 08:22:15 PM: Great! I like it.
Title: 3.02 Release
Post by: Mac on April 03, 2005, 08:28:09 PM: the marines need a bit of help, IMO. *thumbs up to update*
Title: 3.02 Release
Post by: CorvusX on April 03, 2005, 08:33:07 PM: Hopefully will speed up the rines a tiny bit. Teamwork just doens't cut it anymore, most of the time :huh:
Title: 3.02 Release
Post by: Necrosis on April 03, 2005, 08:33:17 PM: Well, lets see.

Quote
- Reduced observatory cost from 20 to 15.
- Increased observatory starting energy to 40.

Hello early SC counter. Aliens going to have to work for their res now. This means bad alien teams using SC first should go down a bit faster, as opposed to the current disproportionately long time it takes for an outclassed SC first alien team to lose.

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- Reduced Armslab cost from 25 to 20.

Possibly more of the same? Faster a1 I suppose..

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- Reduced Phase Gate transportation throttle rate from 0.8 to 0.5 seconds per player.

No more lunch portal :(
Title: 3.02 Release
Post by: Malevolent on April 03, 2005, 08:44:28 PM: Hell yes. This sounds good.
Title: 3.02 Release
Post by: LowCrawler on April 03, 2005, 08:53:22 PM: i always thought that al should only be 20.

and can male have a custom title that says "OH MY GOSH thats ridiculous"
Title: 3.02 Release
Post by: Slink on April 03, 2005, 10:41:23 PM: that's a nice hefty anti-SC buff there. right on. now there'll be less moaning about unbalanced SC. (atleast, in theory) And the PG un-nerf is might return PG-beacon back into usefulness.
Title: 3.02 Release
Post by: SwiftSpear on April 03, 2005, 11:47:57 PM: I love it. Some real nice general upgrade boosts. Should give a good comm a little more room to work.
Title: 3.02 Release
Post by: JHunz on April 04, 2005, 12:04:25 AM: Server updated
Title: 3.02 Release
Post by: SwiftSpear on April 04, 2005, 02:27:37 AM: Quote
Server updated
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<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
Title: 3.02 Release
Post by: SgtFury on April 04, 2005, 04:57:03 AM: *wonders if phase gate change will lead to more telefrags* :D
Title: 3.02 Release
Post by: JHunz on April 04, 2005, 06:43:23 AM: I hope so, there's nothing like a telefrag. Especially the one where you FINALLY get HA and a weapon, the last on your team to get them, and then BAM! OLO DEAD!
Title: 3.02 Release
Post by: duherman on April 04, 2005, 07:32:33 AM: Lol or you can bait the onos to go on the pg then get someone to telefrag it. Well these updates seem very well, about time marines got a little juice.
Title: 3.02 Release
Post by: lolfighter on April 04, 2005, 08:44:49 AM: Yay, we're screwed. Now PGs will be just as invincible as before. At least in 3.01, the marines had to GUARD a PG. Now they can just rush through it en masse whenever it is under attack. And here NS was just starting to get fun again.
Title: 3.02 Release
Post by: 2_of_8 on April 04, 2005, 08:50:00 AM: Quote
And here NS was just starting to get fun again.
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If by fun you mean ~80% alien wins...
:D
Title: 3.02 Release
Post by: Malevolent on April 04, 2005, 10:22:12 AM: I agree 1/4. It is bad when the rines have 100 kills and the aliens have around 40-50, and the aliens still win. It happens way too much now.
Title: 3.02 Release
Post by: Necrosis on April 04, 2005, 12:09:36 PM: Aliens are rather meant to be somewhat disposable tho.. thats why skulks and upgrades cost nothing, whereas marines with better abilities (SG, HMG, JP, HA) cost cash.

TBH I'm happy to see an SC nerf by logically boosting the obs. Now I just have to wait for my developer slot.
Title: 3.02 Release
Post by: lolfighter on April 04, 2005, 02:08:39 PM: Welcome back, MDS order. Goodbye Sensory Chamber. Alas, we hardly ~~knew~~ used you.
Title: 3.02 Release
Post by: pardzh on April 04, 2005, 02:35:31 PM: Aliens don't need any help anyway...
Title: 3.02 Release
Post by: Necrosis on April 04, 2005, 03:06:15 PM: Having played a few games, PG is still risky if there's 3-4 aliens on the other side, which is fair.

SC first is still SC first, people still use the elec strat so not sure how truly effective it is. Would need a more balanced set of teams.
Title: 3.02 Release
Post by: Manta on April 04, 2005, 06:07:33 PM: Quote
Lol or you can bait the onos to go on the pg then get someone to telefrag it.

Ugh, it was waaaay worse back in b5. You didn't even have to bait the onos; all you had to do was knife him on top of the PG and get someone to phase. It happened to me at least three times.

And I agree that these changes are good. The PG delay was kind of lame.
Title: 3.02 Release
Post by: Malevolent on April 04, 2005, 06:34:02 PM: Yeah I played a game today where rines were still slaughtered after going through a PG.
Title: 3.02 Release
Post by: 2_of_8 on April 04, 2005, 06:54:08 PM: Quote
Yeah I played a game today where rines were still slaughtered after going through a PG.
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Good :) Beaconing is supposed to weak the Marine taem for those few seconds, and give the Aliens a chance to destroy the phase gate.
Title: 3.02 Release
Post by: SlickWill on April 04, 2005, 08:01:12 PM: TBH, I would prefer that the rines be able to have the old phase ablility back. It was way better that way. I mean the rines still had to bacon and run to pg, which is a few seconds. Now bacon is a death sentence. Shouldn' t quite be like that. Once again, would it hurt the aliens that much. I mean the win percentage might be 85% instead of 87% :p

edt: speling eror
Title: 3.02 Release
Post by: Scuzball on April 04, 2005, 08:07:28 PM: I like it. A mini boost to the marines is just what we needed. A good marine team could still beat a bad alien team... it was just much harder than it should be. Maybe this will fix things up.

On the topic of PG's, my favorite trick as an alien only works if you have help. There's almost no way that 2 or 3 skulks can take down a PG before the rines pour through, even if it's totally undefended. A competent comm has already beaconed, and the rines are just grabbing 1 or 2 rounds of ammo before flooding into your hive.

So while your friends frantically hit the phase, you climb up the wall. PG's are almost always near a wall or some structure. I hold down bite and aim at the center space above the PG, where the marines will be materializing. Sometimes the comm drops a PG out in the open, in which case I actually jump in place while constantly biting.

This way, as fast as they come through, you bite them at head level, usually even while you're actually a little higher. If they knew skulks were there, 99% of the time they'll be aiming down as they phase. Phasing is disorenting in itself, but getting whacked for 70 damage on top of it makes for easy frags. Not to mention, the PG model itself seems to give some cover at ground level (aka skulk level) for anyone teleporting through.

The last time I did this, it was a phasegate built by a JP'er inside Powersilo hive. I racked up eight frags in a row on W3/A2/JP rines by preemtivley biting everyone who came through while a pair of other skulks hit the PG itself. The disorentation and ambush bite really throw them off, and in that case, saved us the game.
Title: 3.02 Release
Post by: pardzh on April 04, 2005, 08:37:39 PM: They could cut the phase time even more, but add back the ability for Aliens to use phases.
Title: 3.02 Release
Post by: A Boojum Snark on April 05, 2005, 12:22:13 AM: Quote
Beaconing is supposed to weak the Marine taem for those few seconds, and give the Aliens a chance to destroy the phase gate.
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TBH, I would prefer that the rines be able to have the old phase ablility back. It was way better that way. I mean the rines still had to bacon and run to pg, which is a few seconds. Now bacon is a death sentence.
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>_> Actually, beacon's intended purpose is an emergency panic button when marine start is under attack. It was never meant to be an alternate means of uberfast wavespawning for rushes. <_<
Title: 3.02 Release
Post by: Niteowl on April 05, 2005, 08:22:01 AM: Are you sure about that ABS? The first beacon only brought the dead rines to MS, leaving the live ones out in the field. Seems like a sorta wave spawn boosting thingy. In later versions the beacon brought back EVERYONE, in which case it seems to be ALSo to save base. Hrm.
Title: 3.02 Release
Post by: Sydney Carton on April 05, 2005, 11:50:10 AM: Quote
Quote
Beaconing is supposed to weak the Marine taem for those few seconds, and give the Aliens a chance to destroy the phase gate.
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TBH, I would prefer that the rines be able to have the old phase ablility back. It was way better that way. I mean the rines still had to bacon and run to pg, which is a few seconds. Now bacon is a death sentence.
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>_> Actually, beacon's intended purpose is an emergency panic button when marine start is under attack. It was never meant to be an alternate means of uberfast wavespawning for rushes. <_<
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Yeah, but it's a really neat strategy that shouldn't be screwed with, in my mind. The first time I saw it (with ye olde bant cornmando that shall not be named), I thought it was one of the coolest things I had ever seen.

If they systematically find ways to remove functionality beyond its intended use by the developers, the game ceases to become fun. It was one of the reasons I was sad to see structure blocking go, although I understand it's game breaking to lose an onos this way.