Response to suggestions

[Jex]

In response to all the suggestions that have been made recently I've compiled a list of all those that I could find in recent threads and attempted to respond to them all. So in no particular order....

If holdables turn free-refill, there should be a timer between refills.

This idea makes sense, but at this point holdables are not going to have free refills.

Also, I'd like to see aliens' dependency on the overmind increased, but I think its health could use a minor buff as well.

Can you expand on your idea of dependancy on the overmind? Any sort of health adjustments to alien units will need to be worked on after pending adjustments to the human team are implemented.

Medkits should replenish health gradually -- over 1.5 or 2 seconds.

This concept is being used in the current med-kit design, thanks.

Normally, a ckit/granger could just build the appropriate structure and have it do the work. If the current power/creep model constrains this into uselessness, I think that should be fixed first.

Changes to the current power/creep system are being considered. Admittedly egg-hunts have been a problem in some games.

As I see it, there are a host of ways to modify zap. It could impose some "ground time" on the player, which temporarily takes away the marauder's best evasive trait -- bouncy, unpredictable speed. Alternatively, the damage could be toned down, or the reload time inched up.

The marauder's electrical attack will likely undergo some form of renovation. We will take your suggestions into account, thanks.

Maybe overminds could get a big health increase but regenerate much slower, like the how the reactor takes longer to repair than other human structures.

Any sort of health adjustments to alien units will need to be worked on after pending adjustments to the human team are implemented.

I suggested long ago a bandolier item that would extend ammo capacity for non-energy weapons and changing the battery pack to make it regenerate ammo slowly instead of just increasing capacities.

An ammo pack is expected to be added soon.

It'd help in any case to get rid of the annoying deconstruct build timer; it's not like a few seconds delay is going to stop a TKer.

The deconstruct timer is not going to be changed at this point.

I think it'd be better just to increase the time it takes to charge up the trample so it becomes less useful once you've entered a fight. And/Or make it so you have to use it immediately after charging up so it's not possible to just sit behind a door or corner and instantly kill anything that comes in front of you.

Being addressed.

The simple logic behind it is there's a battery pack, why not an ammo pack?

An ammo pack is expected to be added soon.

Does no one else see the brilliance in making marauder's zap into an aimable chain lightning?

The marauder's electrical attack will likely undergo some form of renovation. We will take your suggestions into account, thanks.

I was thinking about maybe some sort of spore that would "explode" or secrete a goo that would go everywhere and would "clog" sentries for awhile so that they don't work.
I guess it could be similar to the granger's web thingy and slow down humans (albeit not as drastically)

Thanks for the suggestion. This sort of addition will be considered once the present game is more closely balanced.

Lucifer and/or battlesuit should not gain credits from killing dretches, just like tyrants should not gain frags from killing humans without jetpack/battlesuit/lucifer.

We are not interested in taking this approach.

I would suggest a "gracing" frag or some credits to late joiners, atleast when Stage 3 hits but this doesn't come off as a good solution to me.

As you are able to earn frags/credits while aiding your team as a builder or by simply sitting in a corner, this does not seem necessary. However, it is a good idea and may be considered again in the future.

I think Tyrants should be able to take much more damage, but regen more slowly.

The Tyrant is receiving a number of adjustments, the details will be available in the next changelog.

As of now I think a 'grenade' structure should end up replacing the booster with slightly more sentience cost.

Provided aliens are given grenades sometime in the future, it would would be fair to assume that something like this would happen, but at this point it is not on the list.

Add kick to the chaingun when person with bsuit is moving.

Very possible.

New rifle sound. Make it more... punchy or something.

Feel free to submit one.

Add an icon to the scoreboard that shows the player dead.

Will happen eventually.

Adjust the bsuit and tyrant view height

Very possible.

Limit jetpack time but make it faster

Changes to the current jetpack system will be considered in the future.

Add 'celebration' music at the end?

This can already be done on an individual map basis.

The humans could be a bit weaker without armor, but a bit stronger with it

The light armour is expected to be increased.

Tyrants just need a little less health (350 instead of 400?)

The Tyrant is receiving a number of adjustments, the details will be available in the next changelog.

Oh yea beef up the Mass Driver!

It's a fair possibility that the mdriver will have some adjustments made to it. I also would like to see it increased.

Id say knock (Tyrants') regeneration down notch, and just possibly reduce their overall damage as well, especially against Human structures.

The Tyrant is receiving a number of adjustments, the details will be available in the next changelog.

make it so only a regulated number of Tyrants can be on the battlefield at once.

Typically we've tried to stay away from imposing restrictions on players as much as possible. I'm not sure this idea would scale well depending on the number of players in the game. At this point we expect the current changes to the Tyrant to help centralise the balance.

Disable the tyrant charge when it has less than 200 health. Tyrants can escape way to easy with charge.

The adjustments being made already will likely make the Charge more difficult to use as an escape tool

The jet pack could be a booster. When used if gives you a strong boost of speed the in direction you are looking

Changes to the current jetpack system will be considered in the future.

Medkits that allow unlimited healing of teammates but not the person carrying the kit

This relates to a number of other med-pack ideas that are being considered.

Ammo packs that can be passed to teammates?

The humans are already recieving a boost to the ammount of ammo they can carry.

Grenade "cooking" -- let the player hold the grenade after pulling the pin for precise control over when it explodes

A fair idea, but not pertinent at present.

Greatly reduce or eliminate self-damage from the flamethrower

The current Flamethrower satisfies its design requirements for now.

When friendly fire is turned off, apply that to deployables as well

This idea would have a negetive effect on the process of relocating a base, and is not something we wish to change at the moment.

Rather than nerfing the jetpack, give the aliens an aerial unit. Make it fly somewhat slowly and don't make it too powerful.

We are not in favour of a flying alien.

my idea of a med pack would replace a Battery/Jet Pack and would only be used to heal others or healing thyself (smirk) while healing others.

This idea for a med-pack is being considered. Thanks for the suggestion.

I think the "medic" would need some sort of method of defending himself aside from those lame blasters

Under consideration.

Maybe the (medical) weapon could be a disease spreader, a bio marker that clearly illuminates nearby aliens, or even some sort of radiation field that nullifies alien regeneration.

Thanks for the suggestion. This sort of addition will be considered once the present game is more closely balanced.

I would suggest to include the med pack as an alternative to Rifle and Construction kit. You can choose it before spawning and you could also buy an Advanced med pack which heals faster. Perhaps a medic should be awarded with some credits when healing his team mates.

This idea for a med-pack is being considered. Thanks for the suggestion. A 'medic' would already be earning automatic credits while healing team mates so there would be no need for additional credits to be rewarded.

buying stuff should be more intuitive (it's weird that you have to click "sell" to buy things)

The menu system can already be bypassed using bindings. The binding system is outlined within the manual and Norfenstein has posted an example here: http://tremulous.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=357

Buildings that can't be used shouldn't collide with players. This would make movement much more easy. I would go as far as to say, players in the same team shouldn't clash with each other.

We believe players should collide with each other as well as structures. We have tried to keep bounding boxes at resonable sizes.

One thing I havent seen suggested here is the addition of an alien 'devolving' ability, to go back to lower classes
> Aliens, however, shouldn't get their credits back after devolving.

The concept of de-volving has already been considered and decided against during the development cycle.

for the smallest alien there could be some red flashing or blood and a sound of scraped flesh if one hits a human; for the others maybe a hand (leg?) that scrapes over the screen (like the fists in doom ) and a sound of breaking armor/bones. Just something that gives the players a feedback which attack they did.

We are planning to introduce some better damage feedback in both directions. Thanks for the suggestions.

[-Saig-]

overflow wrote:
New rifle sound. Make it more... punchy or something.

Feel free to submit one.

Done. Well, theres a few others things in there too. Use them if you want.

http://www.plundered.net/saig/weaponfx.zip

[juice]

Thanks Jex for keeping us updated

[strider]

i think thar the advanced bass's spers are TO poerfull it takes 2 of them to kill a turrit and 4 to devtroy the reater i think that it thould be a kind of poisan sper so fi to is hits a man he will
have a much stronger poisan thar will kill him in 15 sekins beacus oe of them can simply shout and run relode and shute a gean

[-Saig-]

just for the sake of wondering, are you all any bit interested in using the sounds i linked up above?

[Timbo]

I'm not sure, I think they're a little too punchy for my tastes.

[-Saig-]

better than sounding like a pea shooter!

at least use the shotgun and rifle/chaingun. if need be i can reduce the overall volume of them as well.

[apple]

Hi! :>

I've mentioned quite a few times now how aliens need better ranged attacls on s2, either by improving zap and/or incorporating advanced dragoon into s2. The reason? Camping on the human side is very, VERY rewarding at this point. Since aliens have no effective way to lay siege to bases until stage 3, humans can quite easily hold back aliens until they reach stage 2 or stage 3, and take their time to attack. This is quite possibly the most annoying part of playing as aliens, since even coordinated attacks with dragoons can and will probably be nullified by turrets and rifle marines if humans have a bit of teamwork. It's inevitably encouraging then to just sit in base and farm frags and wait for reinforcements. In terms of winning games, you can win if you can keep the tent up until stage 3 and abuse the credit advantage and probably weakened aliens (due to the full offensive) to suddenly destroy their base.

I mean, sure, it's a strategy, but what about every other strategy? Take attacking for example. If the base needs so much protection, why not attack? When attacking you'll more than likely turn the aliens' attention somewhere else from your base. You buy time to repair any damage done to base, you gain more credits, and possibly kill a dretch or two. If you're better equipped, you can damage their own base along the way, which is even better.

And why choose base camping over attacking then? It just works a lot better and it's a lot easier than attacking, and IMHO, it shouldn't. This is my reasoning for improving alien S2, at least it should motivate humans to push back aliens instead of inviting them to their base. It's understandable if humans are CORNERED in their base, but current base builds are centered on being cramped and having a positional advantage over aliens, which doesn't necessarily mean that the base is safe. Specially in maps like transit, you can see downright *crappy* base builds (such as the far end of the catwalk in the top floor). As crappy as it is, if humans camp it's nearly impossible to penetrate the base until aliens reach S3. Even then it still requires a lot of teamwork.

Hope this helps. <3

PS: edited first paragraph, meant adv dragoons >_<

[next_ghost]

Buildings that can't be used shouldn't collide with players. This would make movement much more easy. I would go as far as to say, players in the same team shouldn't clash with each other.

We believe players should collide with each other as well as structures. We have tried to keep bounding boxes at resonable sizes.

Well, I think dretches shouldn't block (and be blocked by) very big aliens like goons and tyrants. This should be the ONLY exception in blocking because tiny spider can't block a big dinosaur, can it?

[Neo]

Would make sense that bigger aliens can step over smaller ones.

Any thoughts on maybe making dretches get a little better as the stages go up, say maybe hp going to 35 and then 50 with S2 and S3, just something to make them a bit more viable later on, as if you join late your only option is to just use the 'no feed' evolve point bonus.

Only other irritation is the self damage from lucifer cannons, they just seem designed to be fired at your feet to stop attacks, as thats all most people do when attacked.

[RedGuff]

Hello. when I want to buy some item, i'd like to know the credit I have.
When I want to build a structure, I want to know the Sentience I have. Thanks.

[[HUN]N.M.I.]

Credits are at the bottom right, above the current ammo. When wielding a Construction Kit, Build Points are shown instead of ammo.

[RedGuff]

Thanks !

[Neo]

Also, anything to fix the lag problems would be nice

Basically if you're an alien with a 50ish ping and come across a human who has over 100, your hits will be ineffective at best. If they run backwards or even make a half-assed attempt to circle you will have an even worse time. It isn't as much of a problem with bigger aliens but the lower levels it makes it incredibly annoying to play.

An observation i've made is that pretty much all of the people with higher pings play human, only ever seen a handful that don't.

[werepants]

as far as lag problems, i've noticed that too.  it really stinks when I have to sit right on top of a human to bite him.  with dragoons, too, it seems really arbitrary when and how they hit with the pounce.  maybe i'm still just too newbish, but it seems like this is a problem.

[Kattana]

as far as lag problems, i've noticed that too.  it really stinks when I have to sit right on top of a human to bite him.  with dragoons, too, it seems really arbitrary when and how they hit with the pounce.  maybe i'm still just too newbish, but it seems like this is a problem.

Yes, the lag really hits the aliens hard, humans can spray and pray and still be effective, especialy if they are camping in a group as they usualy are.

As for giving aliens some way to combat battle suits/camping in lower stages, I agree with boosting the dretch hp in later stages, and also when dretch die, and possibly other aliens they could drop/spray acid like acid tubes, I had this idea while dying walking through a pool of the stuff. Acid is just the thing to eat through all that metal of the suits and would give aliens a way to defend their base, although it would not stop the fact that they die just after spawning merely from the fallout of luci's destroying the base.

[Rekov]

Personally i love the new weaponsounds for the rifle and shotgun. For the pulse rifle and las gun, that sof sortof electronic buzz thats currently in game sounds about right.

[trigger happy]

New units/ items would be the only thing i'd change. The game is pretty balanced currently.

[Rippy]

As for giving aliens some way to combat battle suits/camping in lower stages, I agree with boosting the dretch hp in later stages, and also when dretch die, and possibly other aliens they could drop/spray acid like acid tubes, I had this idea while dying walking through a pool of the stuff. Acid is just the thing to eat through all that metal of the suits and would give aliens a way to defend their base, although it would not stop the fact that they die just after spawning merely from the fallout of luci's destroying the base.

I agree with the Dretch hp. There should be a stage 2 or 3 advanced Dretch, with 35 or 40 hp, and still free. Would make it a little easier for late joiners to build up EP.

I disagree with the acid explodey thing. All that would encourage is mass feeding, because alien players will figure they'll do more damage by dying next to a human than actually attacking him. Basically, it would become an alien's most effective attack, and would just end up feeding the humans until they crush the aliens.

However, for the bigger aliens like Dragoons and Tyrants, you payed too much for them to just go suicidal. A bit of acid spraying out upon their deaths wouldn't cause feeding. Heck, it'd encourage aggression. Why die while trying to flee the human base, when you can die fighting right in the thick of all the turrets, spraying acid on them all? But still, no alien really NEEDS acid spraying, I think it'd debalance the game more than it helps.

The other thing I agree with is stage 2 advanced Dragoons. All the advanced aliens become available in stage 2, advanced Grangers, Basilisks and Marauders. But no advanced Dragoon? For the first 2 stages, the best alien unit stays the same, it's the Dragoon. Then the advanced Dragoon kind of gets overlooked because, for just one credit more, you can get the much more powerful Tyrant. All it would take, too, is for the snipe attack to be reduced a little. And extra 50 hp is well deserved for the cost of one extra EP, and it would give humans a reason to leave their base: to kill the advanced Dragoons sniping their turrets.

I dunno, stage 3 advanced Dragoons just doesn't make much sense to me.

[snovvy182]

Hi!
I think you should add a Team Balance and Shuffle Team Vote.

[DIRKDIGGLER]

Hi!
I think you should add a Team Balance and Shuffle Team Vote.

Team balance would be cool. Is this available already in a mod somewhere?

[Stof]

All it would take, too, is for the snipe attack to be reduced a little. And extra 50 hp is well deserved for the cost of one extra EP, and it would give humans a reason to leave their base: to kill the advanced Dragoons sniping their turrets.

I dunno, stage 3 advanced Dragoons just doesn't make much sense to me.

That's not a good reason to leave the base in my opinion. If you want humans to leave the base more often, make it so that you do not lose your equipment when you die. THAT will fix the camping humans for good. Same for aliens of course.

Also, I do not agree that Tyrant is much better than Adv Dragoon, the later is absolutly required in a lot of situations where a Tyrant would only get in the way. Different aliens, different uses. Same for Dragoon vs Adv Mara. Different uses and different play style. Aliens are stronger at stage 3 with a mix of Adv Dragoon, Adv Mara and Tyrant.

Now, if there wasn't some horrible FF, you could even add Basilisks which role would be to stuck the strafing chaingun battlesuit bastars so that Tyrants and Dragoons can kill them quick.

PS : I love FF but a very good potential usage for a Basilisk at stage 3 is so unrewarding : you get no points for that despite helping a lot and you will probably get team killed in the operation. Maybe give Basilisk a huge resistance against alien attacks would be a good idea

[Paradox]

Yes, point keeping would be nice, but then the game would loose a lot of strategy. How about you loose 1(175?) point when you die and have upgrades.

[Stof]

Yes, point keeping would be nice, but then the game would loose a lot of strategy. How about you loose 1(175?) point when you die and have upgrades.

Of course, with point keeping you'd need to greatly increase the cost of all the high aliens and high tech items.

And I don't see how the game would lose a lot of strategy though. At least, there isn't much strategy except to know when to camp anyway so I don't it as bad

[Nux]

Heh, it's fun to try and improve on perfection

[Stof]

Heh, it's fun to try and improve on perfection

Perfection cannot include a CSlike money system.

CS bane of all that is good, creator of the money system plague, may you rot in hell forever !

[Nux]

What bugs you about it?

[Stof]

What bugs you about it?

- It's extremly unrealistic and dumb. I have difficulties with dumb things, even for gameplay purpose
- It makes aggresive play against good players a bad thing, and so it causes players to be very very cautious ( camping )
- It is very frustrating beeing stuck with very low money when the other team is fully equiped. Try getting points as a cashless human in a map filled with Tyrants and Dragoons, try to do the same as a Dretch when all humans are in a tin can with a Lucifer, Pulse or a Flamer.

In the end, I'm here to enjoy myself, and against stage 3 aliens, a rifle just doesn't cut it for that.

[Nux]

I see what you're saying.. it is unrealistic that they should get some sort of insta-wage for hits/kills and insta-purchase some insta-weapons.

But bearing in mind that it's a game about fighting off aliens in a very confined and perculiar way. Aliens that 'evolve' somehow without millions of generations of natural selection.

Bearing all that in mind. It becomes pretty clear that this is a game we're talking about. A game that has less focus on realism and more focus on gameplay. I don't find a problem with it becomes I'm not looking for realism (the thought of tyrants being real is a little too scary for me ).

I feel that such difficulties as not getting enough credits for your next death and rekitting makes the game more interesting. It means you have to be more careful about what you buy and how you fight so that you don't get into that kind of trouble.

[Stof]

And myself I think this just gets in the way of the important things : base location, front lines and actual fighting Having to be extra careful with that weapon because you're sort on cash isn't fun. Having to play with a lousy rifle because you faced an unpredictable tyrant just after a corner isn't fun either. Same for when you lose your Adv Dragoon because of a human who happened to be charging its lucifer just around the corner.

Of course, doing that you lose the "tactic" where the losing team camps it's base until the other team is out of cash. Myself I would rather see two full of cash teams fighting to the death