3.0 Balance Ideas And Suggestions

[Grimm]

As long as we have 2.01 and 1.04, Bob, they cannot take our fun away. We'll set up our own 1.04 server and possibly keep Lunixmonster going as time progresses.

[Geminosity]

heck to that, I'm having enough fun as it is making my own mod ^^

[BobTheJanitor]

But will it have a BFG? And will it be balanced!?!?!!

[Ulatoh]

to respond to owl, the thing i think is broken, is that 5 onos (the aliens highest evo) with all upgrades, is in no way comparable to 5 ha's with all upgrades, hmgs and such...  
 when it comes down to it,      fully upgraded marines> fully upgraded aliens

I think that when they are maxed out, it should be fairly equal, and that games should be decided by strategy, not firepower

and the siege cannon, I allways have thought it was out of place... if we dont have beam weapons, how do we have a portable artillery cannon of gravimetric doom?

[BobTheJanitor]

Well since this is just turning into a general complaining thread, I'll just generally complain. Siege cannons were put in to counter walls of lame. (Which didn't need a counter, ever heard of GLs?) But like a lot of big changes, it seems they didn't see fit to playtest it or even think for thirty seconds about the imbalancing effect it would have on the game. Of course marines would stop walking into hives if they could easily siege them from outside. Of course it stops aliens from building anything around MS at end game when they NEED the chamber support to be able to take marines down, since aliens are already so inherently weak. The only thing sieges don't seem to get used for is actually countering walls of lame. Unless the team is rather noobish, they'll just get a GL and shoot the WoL around a corner.

[Niteowl]

i've read in many places that late game rines should dominate late game aliens. as the aliens have a more dynamic game, they can get map control,but must clear out the rines. rines are better at holding areas, and slowly taking other areas.

[BobTheJanitor]

Which seems kind of odd, when you realize that alien tech is all tied to location. If you don't have a hive, you can't get that level of tech, plain and simple. The marines can plop down another base anywhere they want and recycle the old one. Would be nice if aliens had more ability to take locations, at least at the third hive... but meh, I'm getting tired of beating that horse.

The basic problem is that current game balance pushes the aliens into attacking early and repeatedly, or the marines into digging in and turret turtling. I want an enjoyable middle game, with the winner unclear for a while! As it is you can usually tell who is going to win after only a minute or two, but it still takes an eternity to play out.

[Ulatoh]

one thing that might be neat to se would be:


if marines have structures in a hive room (lets say more than 3) aliens can "upgrade" their hive, to carry out the functions that the other would have granted, but it costs more res... and respawns just as slowly, and is still one location that is easy to attack


dunno, feel free to shoot that idea full of holes :help:

[BobTheJanitor]

Nah, there's a LOT of good ideas like this. Check out the I&S forums some time. There have actually been some great ideas tossed out that could improve the game a lot. However, that forum is a giant black hole. Nothing ever comes out of it. The developers just put it there so people could feel like their ideas were being heard and not email the devs about it.

But we can't even get them to admit that they need to change something very basic in the game back to the way it was before they screwed it up. The chances of a NEW IDEA being put into the game are just plain zero.

[Isamil]

Off topic sort of:I read in the manual that the seige cannon used sound waves

[BobTheJanitor]

Yeah, focused sound waves used to break things apart at the molecular level or some other wondefully sci-fi thing like that. It has minor basis in fact, but mostly it's just neat sci-fi. Any an annoying weapon for aliens!

[Malevolent]

If the TSA could use that technology, you'd think they wouldn't have a problem with the Kharaa.

[Uranium - 235]

Nah, siege cannon uses Gravitronic Posilecular Monosiliconitical Neutrositino technology.

[Ulatoh]

theres no such thing as...

Gravitronic Posilecular Monosiliconitical Neutrositino technology.

... is there? LB?

[BobTheJanitor]

You know you have a point there, mal. If they just have wallhax cannons, why don't they just attach their ship onto the infested station and blast their sieges right through the walls? Surely as long as they can get there and provide a solid medium for the sound waves to travel through they wouldn't actually have to enter and fight hand to claw?

OMG hole in the NS storyline! The world is unraveling!!! AGH!!

Edit for spelling. And for one more AGH!

AGH!!

[lolfighter]

heck to that, I'm having enough fun as it is making my own mod ^^

Let me guess: RC2 without the BS Cannon?

[Geminosity]

lol, nope... it is a lil wacky at the moment I suppose but the finished idea should be less "LOLOLOL I KILLED JOO WIF TEH FUNNY WEAPON" and more like smash brothers melee or something ^^

basically it's all about your pet... at the moment it's a snark but once the basics are working I'm gonna let you choose from different models and skins and even name the lil blighter =D
Essentially your pet is the only weapon you have that can kill, all the others can help but don't actually damage the players, from the 'puntstick' (crowbar, once finished it'll work like smacking someone in smash bros melee minus the whole ringout thing), warpgun (teleports the player you hit plus their pet to a random point in the level, using spawnpoints for that just now but when I start making maps there'll be additional points it can use ^^ ) and other interesting things.
During the fight you'll also be able to pick up cash which you can spend in the shops, though you should watch your back when using them because if you've put money in (works like a snackmachine with a coin slot) and you don't spend it (ie someone warps you away or their pet kills you) the money just stays in the machine and someone else can spend it for you ^~
You'll also get to upgrade your pet to do more damage, go faster and a host of other things.

Apart from the whole thing with naming and skins/models I've implemented the other ideas to some degree already =3
It's a long way off started, let alone finished but it's not gonna be like any other HL mod you've ever played that's for sure ^^

[Diablus]

Nitwowl: oc would work well in combat ithink, theyd either A : be movable (parenting gorge of the oc hits use on it and it disappers so he can rebuild elsewhere ,  B: it would have a TON of HP, or C:it respawns 30 sec - 1 min after it dies, and when it does it will fade into view like when it looks when u touch a cloaked structure as marine.

edit: but of coruse with this idea u will get nubs saying GG MAREINZ SUOHLD GEIT TORRENTS WITH SI3G3Z!!!!111!!!1!1!11

[Grimm]

Yea, and I can honestly see every newb marine in a game saving for turrets right away and turret farm their main start up. Having the turrets would nullify the purpose of mines, which is what Kharaa need to 'balance' it: some kind of stationary structure that deals damage to the marines, perhaps a one-time use-per-spawn thing, like a special Kharaa mine.

[Diablus]

yea, same could go for aliens but mabye set a server side option to limit OCs to 1-3 and   since ocs would be able to "respawn" if u evolved  the oc would die. permenitly