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[Siquo]

Slowly I'm getting better at this game, and I'm liking it. The people playing it are generally very nice, and that helps, too.

The only thing I don't like is the endgame, it can go on for quite a while even though one team has no chance of winning anymore.

[Ivefan]

f4 or play on a server with the surrender command...
or in the worst case, eject commander, get in and sell everything.

[Siquo]

Yeah, should do that last thing more often... Ejecting commanders. Seen em eff up too often, but on the other hand there's no real other way to learn than to eff up as a commander, and you're taking away that opportunity.

[Ivefan]

Yes. but the best time to learn is when you have talkative veterans playing with you.
Now, do not mix those up with the action commanders that don't want to sit in the chair because they can't shoot stuff but still want everyone to do like they say.

[fenrif]

I'm all for newbie commanders learning through failing, as long as it means I can run around and shoot/bite stuff.

But it seems like with the way the game works, there's usually a point where you can tell which side will win. And then newbie commanders still insist on keeping the game going 20 minutes after that point.

Had a really annoying game the other day as marines where the commander kept using that beacon thingie to teleport all marines back to base, like repeatedly. While we were pushing the enemys hives, with exos.

I dunno if he was new, or just kept pressing the wrong button or something, but we lost so many exos, and all our momentum.

[Catastrophic lolcats]

So I've been playing this and having fun but so far there's some things that have been annoying me.
For some reason everyone seems to stack marines. People wait in the lobby for a chance to play marines and the alien team is almost always rookies. It's really bad for balance.
Auto-balance isn't great either. I've seen it shift the bottom players from the marine team into the alien team which was getting decimated.
Maybe it's just because I'm a nub but it seems as soon as the marines are able to get jetpacks they wreck everything. Even those Onons become useless as marines can just fly away and unleash tons of lead into them.
Net-code seems extremely dodgy. I was running around with a good 20 ping but I noticed all kinds of strange things with players that were just 50+. Getting shot through walls, units "teleporting", going straight through the marines as an alien.
The maps are insane. I understand the need of a complex map but it seems a little over the top. I had to play most of the matches with the map open.

[werty892]

So I've been playing this and having fun but so far there's some things that have been annoying me.
For some reason everyone seems to stack marines. People wait in the lobby for a chance to play marines and the alien team is almost always rookies. It's really bad for balance.
Auto-balance isn't great either. I've seen it shift the bottom players from the marine team into the alien team which was getting decimated.
Maybe it's just because I'm a nub but it seems as soon as the marines are able to get jetpacks they wreck everything. Even those Onons become useless as marines can just fly away and unleash tons of lead into them.
Net-code seems extremely dodgy. I was running around with a good 20 ping but I noticed all kinds of strange things with players that were just 50+. Getting shot through walls, units "teleporting", going straight through the marines as an alien.
The maps are insane. I understand the need of a complex map but it seems a little over the top. I had to play most of the matches with the map open.

1.There are lots of good alien players. Stay away from the 16 player servers, try to go on the 25 or 20 player servers. Avoid rookie servers also.
2.Yeah, the game has just been released. And the servers are EXTREMLY CPU intensive. Its going to happen until the devs figure out how to fix it. For now, just go to servers with performance at 100%, those are better.
3. Not really. Every map usual has a center area, and you can orient yourself using the map(IDK what key it is, I have it bound to v). Above all else, listen to your commander. He will tell you where to go. If he doesn't have a mike or is just quiet, fine the biggest group of players on the map and go where they are. You wont go wrong doing that. As the marines, follow the minimap in the top left, and as aliens, if you follow cysts to the end of there line they you will get somewhere useful. But yeah, use the map, and listen t your com.

[Anvilfolk]

When I was playing I found a diminute amount of people use voice-comms. After being in an actual squadron (in IL-2) I find it very hard to play without other people on voicecomms, to the point where I find myself mostly ignoring the chat (not on purpose). It might be getting better as the community matures a bit. Waiting for my new rig to try this again. It runs far too slow on my current one!

[Siquo]

Can't use comms as I'd wake up my kid But having people doing it is great. I do send in reports by chat ("Cargo clear" ,"Fade in stability", etc), or requests, but the chat-lines don't stay on screen long, so I keep it to a minimum.

For marines to win they need to make extensive use of Phase Gates, and try to cut off the enemy with those. The phase gates are their #1 weapon, but they require a good commander and coordination. For instance, they can be used as sneak attacks, getting just one marine to a distant hive, quickly get power and a pg up, then everyone phases in there and bam

[LeoLeonardoIII]

I don't have NS2 but I watch this guy LP it whenever it shows up on his channel. Here's the best comeback match I've ever seen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvmDtVTuIPE&list=UUN-Klifn9C7kINwpIA0uOHw&index=34. The turnaround comes at 58:00.

Spoiler: Outcome (click to show/hide)

Galm is Alien, the Aliens pretty much get hammered all game, at the end everyone's talking about quitting, but at the very end the Marines push together too far and Aliens rush into their base and smash their upgrade structures. As soon as Aliens realize, they start fighting back with spirit and demolish the Marines within a couple minutes.

One thing you may not like about Galm as an LPer is his continual use of the minimap and you may get irritated at some of the dumb shit that comes out of his commentary. I think it's hilarious. At one point in an LP he said something to the effect of "ok guys we got some rocks to shit on" out of nowhere.

Anyway, I agree with giving the game a chance since there are such frequent patches. Everything was up in the air for a long time during beta, with abilities going from one alien to another, damage and cost for stuff varying, etc.

I also agree that it seems like a good comm makes or breaks the match. It's easy for a comm who isn't totally on top of it to be two upgrades behind the other comm and you're out on the ground fighting with inadequate stuff. Maybe your marine comm spends rez early on medpacks and ammo and he should be focusing on structures and research, or he doesn't recycle structures soon enough. Maybe your comm drops structures before the zone is safe.

Luck plays a major role too, whether you manage to slip through to a base and do some damage while everybody's busy elsewhere. Did you stay on target on that skulk (which is really the difference between killing it in a clip or nicking it just before it eats you). Did that skulk happen to pop out of the vent you were looking at and you blast it?

And footsoldier skill matters a lot too, whether you can keep your structures up and destroy your enemy's, whether you can keep more rez flowing into your team than into the other one. Maybe the marines keep hitting your cyst chains with flamethrowers. Maybe their exos have excellent welder support. Maybe the aliens keep the marine structures from being healed with bile bomb. Maybe the people in the base get confused and run off in the wrong direction for that 3 seconds you needed to get enough chomps on a structure to drop it. Do you stay out in action long enough to be useful but flee and heal up to preserve the personal rez you spent?

The maps are very interconnected but yet very broken up, especially from the marine perspective because they move through vents so slowly. There are so many opportunities to play mind games with your opponent and you have to think about the map how each side experiences it.

It's a complicated game, which is why it's fun to watch and listen to commentary.

[ank]

I feel like the game itself is balanced, but the maps are not.
For instance: On Summit when aliens spawn at Sub and marines at Flight, there is a nice corridor that marines can stand in and just kill the hive. It's just straight up GG when you spawn in those positions.

Same with aliens spawning on the right side on Veil, they have no way of cysting nano.

[Ivefan]

"One thing you may not like about Galm as an LPer is his continual use of the minimap..."

"The maps are very interconnected but yet very broken up, especially from the marine perspective because they move through vents so slowly."

I would be so happy if everyone used the map as much as he does because a lot of players have no sense of what is going on other than in front of their eyes.
Marines aren't supposed to be in vents, they've got phase gates.

[werty892]

"One thing you may not like about Galm as an LPer is his continual use of the minimap..."

"The maps are very interconnected but yet very broken up, especially from the marine perspective because they move through vents so slowly."

I would be so happy if everyone used the map as much as he does because a lot of players have no sense of what is going on other than in front of their eyes.
Marines aren't supposed to be in vents, they've got phase gates.

Marines can use and should use vents when its appropriate. Most of them they cant get through without a jetpack, but once they have them, they too should be using them to bypass alien defense.

[Ivefan]

There are few vents that they could use for bypass and usually doing so means going alone and dying.
Main reason to be in a vent is to defend against aliens or to kill any hiding ones because they rarely expect a marine in it.

[LeoLeonardoIII]

Can you stick mines in vents? Because that would be awesome. Hidden just around a corner or on a ceiling. Clots too, I've never really seen anyone clot up some vents, but maybe that's partly because Gorges can't really reach them and Aliens use them more than Marines do so it'd be pointless.