I hope this doesnt get lost. And hope the devs at least read it. First the most important point. GIVE ALIENS A COMMANDER. Its not really strategy game for them. I think NS2 should incorporate a line of sight to their game. For example, after a certain distance the map would just blur out. This would allow the game environment to be played outside. Once outside, any number of things can be added, like vehicles and air units. Then players on the field would just share this line of sight.
Vehicles would be a nice touch and they would be easy to implement. Just make a building with a pad. Have the commander click on the bulding and build it 1 at a time, and when its done the vehicle appears on the pad ready for use.
Finally, the whole marines are range and aliens are melee is really limiting to this game. It makes it difficult to balance, and makes the strategy of the game very undynamic. The dynamic or change of a game is very important to an RTS.

i think there is a problem in the current ns, which mst be destroyed in ns2.

-> at more than 10 marines the aliens lose often

@ Insomnia: No. The aliens shouldnt have a commander because then they wouldnt be alien at all. And the 'conventional' lifeforms should remain primarily melee, just like they are now. It is the aliens organic vehicles that give them long range and a way to get into the rine base. Imagine a skulk bombing. Drop 5 skulks and 2 lerks, the skulks skydive into the base while the lerks circle above sporing away.

The current system of hivesight is very fitting for the aliens. Admittedly, it will need some serious tweaking, as well as new abilities, but the ALIENS SHOULD NOT BE GIVEN A COMMANDER.

I think you guys are kind of missing the point of NS2.

With the progression to a next generation engine, and larger maps, outdoor environments etc, NS is moving away from the cramp corridors and tight turns that we all experience in our game play now.

What will change most is that most of these battles will probably take place in large scale maps with higher player counts... and the aliens (AS THEY CURRENTLY EXIST) wouldn't stand a chance out in the open.

Aliens will have to be completely redeveloped, probably from scratch. They will need a vastly expanded range weaponry repotoir. Things like vehicles will be common, so stuff like Onos class WILL BE AVAILABLE EARLY.

If marines are getting around in easily available tanks, aka Desert Combat, you'll be Onos pretty often too.

Reource models will probably be rethought, upgrade trees changed... It will be a very different game.

Trying to make NS into NS2 straight up is like trying to shove a square peg in a round hole: it just isn't going to fit.

ah

but the current aliens work well inside buildings, which means, when theres an outbreak or overrun in some parts of the buildings, the current aliens would still be a formidable opponents, while outside, tanks and heavy units slaughter everything... coz inside buildings, large and really heavy units can't really enter

Well... I tend to dream a bit more realistic, and I do not think NS is heading for larger maps and outdoor envs. I don´t want to play Battle Field, if I did, I´d go buy a copy of it... No, I want the same original NS style as before, close quarter battles with fear of what might be hiding behind the next corner (and I think the most ppl that don´t reply on this thread think the same). However, I haven´t played NS since... well since Steam was "born" and I discovered my CD-key was "already in use", so I have been missing out on a thing or two. I am just dying to blow some skulks up with a handgrenade or maybe try out the other gameplay mode. I´m not conservative but honestly a major change of NS would make it less popular.

Still porting it to the source engine would be really awsome, and it sure opens up a lot of options. But as mentioned in previous posts, perhaps the lightning is the most important thing to NS, I mean it enhances the feeling and creates a nice atmosphere to the game combined with bump-mapping, highres textures and debris (pipes, trashcans, furniture, tools etc.) and highly detailed maps. However I don´t think making NS a Doom3 mod would be that popular, since Doom3 itself wasn´t such a success and it would almost require reprogramming from scratch. And it´s only a matter of mapping skills to create that kind of atmosphere.

Further more about the vehicles, I wouldn´t think there´s a chance for those either, considering that its not a possibility to drive a tank up the stairs and make an "Austin Powers turn" ( that thought always make me laugh inside) in the middle of a corridor... GL, no.. that would indeed require large maps which I already discussed. However, some small changes and addons could be applied without changing too much, like maybe a hover-board, like in back to the future ^^ for fast getaways (increasing speed to 150% or so...) and could be distributed like the jetpack, imagine hovering through tight corridors with a pack of skulks chasing you...

I liked the idea of aliens being able to combine different abilities and I agree that perhaps somekind of subcommanders would be in place, however, they shouldn´t be able to controll anything but the troops, like recieving comms from the "bigboss" and distributing them to the troops. These "subcommanders" could perhaps be determined by their skills, like the 3 best marines get promoted, that way it would be a bit more dynamic. I like to see a bit more team play, which never seem to be taken seriously in any multiplayer game. And some kind of ranking in scores perhaps, unless that´s already added in the current versions :S

Some diversity could perhaps created by somehow deploying small mountable turrets with somekind of forcefield in front... Oh, I just relized I´ve seen those in HL2 ^^.. well anyway that could be nice and that way it would be a bit easier to secure an area. On the alien side I´m not sure what could possibly be improved apart from the free evolution thing which perhaps might give more than enough diversity. Oh.. almost forgot, please add lasersights to marine weapons if you decide to go with the new engine

Anyway I should get one of those old HL keys so I can start playing again... Dream on...

Well in light of all these ideas about vechiles(for the marines) i came up with an idea. If the aliens are going to be lacking in the "seige" department maybe a new class should be added. completly stealth(maybe like 80% invisibility constantly) with weak attacks but one major abilitiy: Infestation.

This lifeform could completly take over any vechile. The person controlling the alien now controls the tank, buggy etc.
Seeing as the aliens might have minor seige capabilities(i mean common onos vs tank? i wonder what will win?) the sole pupose of this new class would be to take marine vechiles into control

Just an idea

well if ns ever moves to larger outdoor maps and not turn into battlefield, i'd suggest a couple of things:

- first to support large maps and lots of players, i'd suggest some sort of server protocol for sharing borders, connections to each other, so players can live and die in a really large world(consisting of multiple servers). ofcourse all sorts of upgrades systems would have to be taken relative to ones position/distance to upgrade-buildings/hives, so the first armslab in the universe doesn't upgrade all rines, and hanging around a chamber really gives advantage, making more chambers in a area really helps then.

- the second thing, maps being outdoors would have long range of sight (rine-friendly), so the sight range should be limited, and cloak should be upgraded a little (i think they'r allready doing this one in beta 6). also care has to be taken because in open field rines have advantage, so maps should have underground areas too.

- rines should have an extra equipment-item(costing res) called radio so that 1 person in a team can be communications officer/sergeant, when he dies, another can pick up radio again. without the radio, a rine team would slowly get out of sight of the commander and not hear orders, waypoint, etc, even with radio the range should not be unlimited. ofcourse making outposts with obs-like devices solves the problem.

- really important one !!! : for a really tense game atmosphere (and as a counter for fast-spawn-die cycles also) maps should be generated and fog of war hidden at start, not pre-defined. this will give the extra thrill effect of exploration, not knowing were aliens are coming from, not running in a straight line from ms to hive and vice versa. finding alternative routes to backsides of a hive, starting an expansion post (with pg ofcourse the most important rine item in large map games, so more expensive. actually i'd make it mountable, so 1 rine should carry it, this gives extra risk, but greater effect if succeeding), also aliens need to scout for hive-spots before they can build a hive.

- for marines a factory producing vehicles would be needed reasonably far up in the tech tree. vehicles would ofcourse cost res, need a driver, have 1 gunman with special guntype. when driver dies, vehicle can crash and explode, so extra bonus for taking out the driver and perhaps the hole squad. same with fly-type rine vehicle. control of it should be difficult, so gunning from air doesn't get to easy, rines on top can ofcourse fall off if not flown correctly. jp or parashoot can save falling rines. rines can perhaps have some large digging machine costing lots of res and far up techtree, but able to get to underground hive relatively easy. sieges i would exchange for some sort of deployable mortar kind of siege weapon, deployment takes time ofcourse, and a rine would still be needed to operate it and aim. this rine would be relatively easy target undefended. of course mortar cost res, and also can be lost when a rine dies just carrying it around.

- ofcourse to counter this all aliens should have some upgrades also. i'd change the upgrade system so that aliens can have more upgrades per chamber working for them depending on the number and distance the nearest chambers are away.
two more really wild ideas.........:
1 - have the second hive (if its in a large open area, upperground, and has underground hive in the neighbourhood(making it a second hive in an infinite map)) spawn lerks instead of skulks (got this idea of someone mentioning an elephant and bees in his signature). that hive being in the open would be a lot more vulnerable ofcourse. but it would produce a real swarn of bees, armm..lerks. rines ofcourse dont on forehand know its position. it should be hangin beneath something ofcourse.

2 - a new large lifeform.....some large worm kind of alien has 2 modes. first crawling kind of slowly being vulnerable but regaining energy(perhaps some digging small tunnels ability going a little faster and giving skulks anadvantage in the beginning of the game, dont know). second when attacking being rolled up like a bowlingball, doing damage in his path, being fast, bouncy and really thick skinned. accelerating cost energy (when not rolling downhill), when energy is down, it returns into a sitting duck. someone should be able to come up with a funny name.

well, this is it for now, i'm sure i've made lots of spelling mistakes and some of my ideas are totally not implementable, but it would give some sphere back into the game. right now as a rine, first thing i do when aliens dont have middle-hive, i lock it. i know where it is, i know 2 routes, 1 almost certainly free at start. having to explore first would rule.it's also a good reason for both teams not to completely camp untill upgrades are available.

I haven't given deep thoughts on this as it just came to mind and I'm typing it as I am making it.

The current story of NS is that the TSA are fighting against an alien race in several TSA base. Games involves up to 32 players 16X16 in dark TSA infested bases with a dark atmospher.

With this being said, lets adress some of those elements and elaborate for NS2/NS:Source.

1) TSA fighting against alien invaders
As all NS players know the story told in the game doesn't mention how it came to this. The game description in the game manuals might say it but almost no one ever reads it. They just go into games and fight.

How about making a few maps in NS2/NS:Source that would sort of tell the hows/whys on what led the TSA to start fighting Kharaa species. By few maps, I mean something like 2-3 maps where each one would visualy introduce the players to the hows/whys of the initial contact (Pre/Selection contact if you want). I won't elaborate on what kind of map. You do it.

2) fighting in several TSA bases
All fightings (shipped NS maps) are spreaded over the TSA universe. Now how have the Kharaa species managed to spread out They don't have any space ship traveling technologies so they must have used TSA's ships. They don't know how to pilot TSA ships and couldn't do it also. So here you could introduce something new to explain how they spreaded. How about human infestations capabilities ? That would explain how they traveled. They would have infested remaining surviving marines just so they could pilot the TSA ships for them and spread through out the universe.

Having a few maps that place the TSA into Kharaa's universe would suggest the trigering point of the Kharaa's spreading out. Kharaa had to start moving out and spread in order to survive. After all, what's the point of staying in one place if all the TSA found out about it and kept sending troops to your home. So survival would be the motive for spreading out.

3) infested TSA bases with a dark atmosphere
Having maps that are meant for outdoor fighting kinda kills the idea of dark atmospheres. So I would recommand that NS2/NS:Source sticks with that idea. Also, the Kharaa species being of a lurking/sneaking nature, it demands that maps should be filled with areas that would suggest lurking/sneaking. Big opened rooms make the Khara easier to kill and therefore, shouldn't be seen in NS2/NS:Source. You could have medium sized rooms but at least with structures/vents in it to help the Kharaa. Having closed environements helps to have a low light environement to sticks to the dark atmosphere idea. If outdoor maps are to be used, then please do not make them in plain daylight. Stick with the low light and structures/vents elements.

4) 32 players 16 X 16
I'm against the idea of increasing the amount of players. It would make the games longer and complicate the commander's work. Also, having more then one commander isn't a good idea. It would throw the balance of the game into the TSA side. If the amount of players should be increased, then keep it to 64 players maximum. That would also imply that maps should be a bit bigger.

5) The evolution of both species
Now with these points elaborated, this helped to explain how to introduce the history before the one we know in the current NS game. Now, for the future part, it would have to be a natural progress of the technology on both sides to make it believable and with comon sense. It could be things like because the TSA invented some kind of new weapon, the Kharaa had to evole it's current bilological technology to compensate. It could be through a new structure or new ability. Don't throw in stuffs that doesn't make sense and leaves the oposing speacy at a disavantage. Keep in mind "natural and believable progress on both sides"

6) introducing vehicles
Some people had mentioned the usages of vehicles. That sounds fun and all but it would go against some of the current NS principles that I have explained. It would need bigger rooms (alot bigger) and therefore, take away lerking/sneaking. It would put the Kharaa at a disavantage because after all, why would the Kharaa have vehicles ? It doesn't make sense. Therefore, only the TSA would have them. Again, this is a bad idea. It would throw the balance of power on to the TSA side. If vehicles must be used, then they would have to be : slow moving, for carying troops of 4-6 marines with non closed areas to facilitate geting out in a hurry and having the troops being attacked from kharaa with ease.

7) marines vs marines / kharaa vs kharaa
Currently, there are few maps that have marines vs marines. I have read that Kharaa vs Kharaa wasn't possible because the NS team thought about it and were opposed to it. If there should ever be maps with fighting amongst the same species, then it should be possible for both species. After all why have marines vs marines and not kharaa vs kharaa ?

Maybe having maps where you had 3-4 teams where a mix of species would be possible. It could be an elimination round where when you die, you don't respawn and therefore the winning team would be the last surving member of all teams. Collaboration could be possible between teams to fight the other team. But if a collaboration is established, then none of the collaborating team members could kill the other allied team or if one died because of an ally, then collaboration would be canceled. That would be the price for collaboration. Or that if the 2 allied teams are the only one left, then collaboration would automaticaly be cancelled so they could fight each others. Having more then one team of marines would imply 2 commanders. The choice here would be if we don't allow commanders, then it would be more like a combat match but with no respawns.

There you go, these are my thoughts on the NS2/NS:Source (all done during office lunch).

i suggest releasing multiple mods using the same setting slight differnce is that the mod u download gives you a two different factions with the full load out of weapons cause each mod would give you a different confict lets face it the galaxy is a big place so there has to be differnt wars between the many facitions of the universe of natural selection and me im all for huge war modes.

i think it would be fun if the player got some more decision making for himself some sort of rpg inside ns.

The comm stays for the upgrades for the whole team.

Chambers stay for whole alienteam.

But players can specialize.

Just think of hacker marines that can use consoles to activate station-intern security systems.
Mechanics that can repair stuff quicker and hide mines.
Spec ops with the ability to cloak and silenced weapons.
Grunts with different types of grenades.

Same goes for aliens.
They can evolve abilitys like living without air or getting reduced dmg from special dmg types.
Aliens could get their own set of weapons for their lifeforms so marines don'T know anything like "Oh it's a fade no problem at all, WTH that fade just blinked trough that wall! where did it go?"
or something like "OMG that gorge just grew claws and owned me o_O"

This way every game will be a new experience instead of all the old lifeforms with the same shemes of attacking.
^^

Well in NS or NS2, I'd like to see campaigns. Big ones. As a marine, it might be interesting to move up the chain of command, going from a private, to a officer/squad leader, to a commander. It would be really cool to play out some of those classic horror sequences like in the movies where you can see thousands of little blips on your radar approaching you. It would also be pretty cool to have scenarios like planting a nuke to wipe out an alien colony (though in mutliplayer nukes would be out of the question).

Also, I'd like some thought put into storyline. Where exactly are we fighting the Aliens, on Earth or on space colonies or something? What year is it? How did they get here? Why can't we just nerve gas them all? How can we stop them for good?

If NS2 is made for source, then I want it bloody and scary as hell. Everything needs to be dark, and the aliens need to look more menacing. Big red slitted eyes, sharp claws and spikes, big vampiric teeth, cheetah-striped hides, blurs when they move fast (as long as this doesn't cause serious hardware issues), and menacing sounds. All the stuff that makes you think "Big mean scary thing moving fast...RUN!!!" Also, per the standard, the aliens need to be able to easily kill lone marines, but they need to have a lot of trouble with clusters of marines. Thus, it's a lot easier to get scared into staying in a group. The scarier the aliens, the more fun the game will be, especially in campaigns. I want to have difficulty sleeping after playing the campaigns.

If you do start making it for source, I'll help both in modeling, and campaign making (and I'll be taking a programming course pretty soon so I could help there too).

THis is an idea I've had for NS2:


My vision of NS2 is Massive, a starsystem RTS/FPS involving galaxies, systems, space flight/movement, and space battles, coupled with the existing infantry and ground assault inside ships, stations, and planet outposts.

Game screen, you connect to a massive server, as such, a ready room for the masses, let's say a starport. From here, you enter into fullly immersive SP gamemodes giving you the history of the TSA/Kharaa struggle, ways you can join the battle, game modes and other intsructions, or connect with other players in chat rooms and other mediums.Once you choose which species you want to be, TSA or Kharaa, you enter the portal of the team of your choice, and move to a different server dedicated to the species of your choice.

Team 1: Trans-System Authority
After entering the TSA portal, you drop into a starship, with multiple command ships and dropships. Here you have a choice to fight in the TSA Space Fleet, or join the Infantry division and wipe out infested grounds. This will be a massive ship, with multiple Command Ships and Multiple Dropships awaiting crew members. Each CS or DS can represent different servers, be password protected, or otherwise customized (giving you a fully immersive server browser list!) There are also Training maps detailing the mission objectives of the TSA, and specific training in the duties of each area you can volunteer for.

--Class 1: TSA Space Fleet
An elite few can choose to be Command Ship crew, and fight The Kharaa Ships. As a crew member, you will choose from many positions, a Captian for each ship will direct the ship to the Quadrant in need, and deploy Harvestors for asteriods to collect needed resources to operate and upgrade the ship/fighters, manned pilots for the harvestors (to collect resources), Fighters (bombers and combat to defend/attack if encountering Kharaa ships), and gun ship personell to man stationary weaponry on the Command Ship. The commander has Voicecomm with all personnel, while Squad leaders take squads of fighters to attack enemies ships, or defend the harvestors. Harvesters attach Resource Gatherers to asteroids and transport the collected resources to the Command ship to be used. The Captian will have an RTS style view of the Quadrant and battle, with upgrades, WP's, and all that comes with commanding a space battle, at his fingertips. The fighters will have 1st/3rd person views from their ships when attacking, and the gunners will have 1st person view from the cockpit of the gun station. Your objective is to destroy any Kharaa Mother Ships in the area, cleansing the system of the alien filth. Interested in jumping into a battle straight away, there is a level where jump pilots are needed to replace those who have perished (left the server)

--Class 2:TSA Ground Forces
Here you join a squad of marines destined to fight the Kharaa on an infested ship/base, and await orders to move out. Or you can find a pad where a dropship has alreay deployed, and jump in the teleporter if a marine is needed. Once you have filled a dropship with the necessary amount of marines, your Division will be escorted to a Command ship where you will be taken to an outpost, Space Station, or infested Ship to fight back the alien infestation. Once your dropship is deployed, you will arrive on the target destination, and, using the TSA Command Chair brought in, try to retake the station from the Kharaa presence. Use the Resouce System of the facility to your favor, using technology to combat the power of the Kharaa. Your Division may stay be deployed to up to three battles, before returning to the Starship to resupply, and pick up new recruits. But don't fear, should a TSA marine perish at any time, other can be phased in from the nearby CS to help keep your Division full.

Team 2: Kharaa
After entering the Kharaa portal, you are taken to the Kharaa HomeWorld where are trained in the ways of the Kharaa. Do you join the ranks of the Armada to repel the Human invasion of your conquered glory, or do you join your brethren to hold fast to the human ground already conquered. Use the training grounds provided to prepare for the war, defending your race to destroy the human resistance.

--Class 1: The Armada
Should you choose to assault the TSA ships in the cold of space, you'll need to be ready. Taking the form of an organic assault fighters, and one MOTHER SHIP, use the resources you brought from the Homeworld to become a ship capable of creating automated harvetors, attaching to an asteroid and collecting needed resources. This "creator" ship can also place space mines, automated sentry organisms, even large structures capable of cloaking, healing, or transporting other alien fighters. In the end, this ship will be capable of evolving into another MOTHER SHIP, able to bring in more alien fighters, thus outnumbering the TSA and overwhelming the enemy. Once you have conquered the Command Ship, you will secure the territories as a Kharaa stronghold.

--Class 2: The Invasion Force
Using the powers that your evolution has afforded you, you will be sent to a human homeworld or outpost to protect it from recapture. You will be awakened once any human presence has been detected, and must regain control of the facility before the Marine presence spreads too far. Using the existing resource system, gather resources to survive, expand into other areas and build hives, or evolve into powerful lifeforms and repel the invasion. Should fellow lifeforms forfeit themselves, other Kharaa can be brought in to sustain the battle.




End idea. All in all, a fully integrated world of Fighter to Fighter combat, complete with RTS space system, server browser made in game, standard NS gameplay, and an experience that makes you feel like you are really part of a larger battle.

i would love to see that the lerk can mutate/upgrade in to new flying lifeforms
1 that can shoot at long ranges but its slows 160 hp/200armour
1 that can do big damage to tank/mech buildings 140 hp/170 armour

and for the fade to mutate/upgrade in to a new lifeform
that can dig in to the ground and creat earthquike 230hp/300hp

and for the marines a medic marine, flame trower, cloack armour, airplains
dropship, scanner ship, battle ship, rockets, missle turrets, bunkers, spider mines
smal nuke, more marine upgrades, huge builings like SC
more res types like minerales, gas, iron,

sry for the bad english

I don't post much around here, but I just wanted to add my two cents about NSS or NS2.

I think marines should be able to (at some point) upgrade to future weapons (eg lasers) and the rifle's scope should be put to use. I was always thinking of other weapons (flamethrower , radiation launchers *similar enough to gl*, EMP nades etc).
I'd also like to see advanced marine shields of some sort (I've heard bout extralevels' static and such, but I've never been able to get extralevels working, so I wouldn't know).
There should be an advanced wall climbing creature, like a cross between Fade and Skulk, who ranks somewhere in between the two. Maybe even through ina abit of Lerk. A creature halfway between Skulk and Fade, size and strength-wise, that can grab and carry others.

Well, there's my two cents.

i have an idea for a new race for ns2. its a parasitic race of aliens that starts out as a small slime thing that you could fit in a large pickle jar (no this IS NOT a joke)
its so small in fact that it can enter the bodys of other larger life forms thru the mouth. this will kill the host in just about 10 sec. then you will have the option to go to the next stage in your lifecycle OR simply take over the hosts corpse (this is were it gets really interesting) after this if you get low health you can exit the corpse and search for a new host. if you find and infect a new host you can combine a previous trait from a host you have infected (only from your current life tho) this will give you the chance to get really creative! for example you could have infected a marine and kept its arm trait and swap one of a fades arms for a human one so you can hold one handed weapons. but this will of corse lower the claw attack damage of the other arm. small alien buildings can be infected too but it takes longer. thats basically my idea and so..........i guess im done here

PH34l2 THE SKULK!!!

Lot O great idea's here,

so your leaning towards battles out side, on mulit area

hum, i would still like to see a lot of inside work, multi story structures

but if your going to go out side, maybe you should look at weather effects to help, close the distance, between aliens and rines, have a day night cycle by day rine storm the grounds doing wheelies in dune buggys, while sulks cluster in motionless cloak watching the grass grow waiting for a marine to get close enough to take of his head, and by night the sulks run rampant and mess with marines heads as they stay out side of there tourch glow as the marines cluster togther whimpering about whos going to go look for charlie

i can see people are pushing towards a on slorught style of play like in UT2004k
or mulit maps were you can change from map to map in play depending on battle

me i would like to see more things encourage people to use a trap style of play, in current area style sas we have now, sort of like trying to lure the alien into the ram tunnel in aliens 3, or into the pyromid in AVP movie

i want to see rines use there spawn pad to change to different roles eg click spawn pad change to a hot flexable female katana welding medic, and i want to see aliens adopt and meld with other dead alien parts, make the rines a little less hesitant to kill us, eg a newbie gets spawn camped 17 deaths, next renforce he desides hes going to spend the colected saved up deaths hes had, the wings from his first lurk death and the the spikes from his 16 other sulk deaths he just runs at this rine and impales him

for every rine main gun and armor that gets added add a new alien life form

you want rines to have tanks and so on but cant work out a way for aliens to do the same, simple give aliens a trade/combine option, sort of like a gamblers card table allow extras to join in, its got a rez exchange system as well as a group gastate system,were said form it requires 30 rez from each alien, and sertain aliens my need to start off as said forms already but once preques are acounted for every one clicks yes and bang they all gastate into a reverse cellare change they go from five smaller egs to a big long egg, in the end a huge wyrum is form like that of dune, or a dragon is formed, one person is the tallons another the tail one the movement and the eyes and so one

i dont want to break into details and have some nuff nuffs pinch my ideas, but this has been added to

also i would like to see, a page from starcrafts book, i want alien infestation to move thro tunnels and over land as the aliens progress

just a recount of what i do have,
8 new marine guns/armors/items
7 new alien life forms one new chamber
and the medic chick *note a sulk needs to get milk also*
all these idea's drawn up and detailed out abilitys costs times units what ever


pritty much i would love to see a in game crafting system, and a unquie char customisation, by doing this i was thinking maybe before we all rush in people sit a boot camp course for said acount name, then they gain said rank there not limited to promotions or demotions, but give others a great idea at what there good at

me i am happy with what i am given, still i am willing to help contribute tho

scribed by
Michael Healey
AKA NEX,NEX17 and Sweagles the second Nodes
michael_healey17@hotmail.com

Game Mode: DropShip (ds_mapname) a squad of marines are dropped off from a drop ship. They are all given LMGs. There are 3 hives already built and tons of rts. marines must make there way slowly to a new sector of the map to recieve new weapons (armory depots, etc.) as they die they are spawned over the map, can look down at the entire map through a one way texture, but cannot make any sound at all. You must plant some type of explosive or activate some sort of self destruct sequence and then hold the aliens off for 5 minutes until they are beaconed out. I know this would be a hard map for marines, so I suggest each map be extremly biased for the marines sake, and the final destination in the last hive.

eh i give it props

I'll be honest, I like NS the way it is, the benifits to be gained of another engine are ofcourse great, like more players, more weapons etc.

But I like the idea of more evolutions.

I also like the thought that perhaps these stations have their own defence, like ceiling based turret defences, or some kind of robotic defence, that kills indescriminately.

But the only thing I can suggest is not using HL2 engine for NS2, I believe that it would limit far to much - like every nvidia card user - due to its graphic use being coded for ATI, but also whens unreal engine 3 out?!

you played UT 2004k dark, shes not to shabby in onslorught mode, only problem is every servers runnign a client demo, not to many servers running a real one and the same to maps get boring, but even with bots or a lan on slort has soem big nice well designed out door maps, some nice internal bases plenty of guns a adaquet vechale engine

hum dreams of three person controled bacterial dragon i so want to control the tallon picks up rines and shreads them, wait picks up a rine gets the person controling the tail to impale them gets the main driver to land so the tail user can slam the rine on the ground a few times

hum alien death bonuses for exstic team kills

Narsasistic Impaleding kill

ultra sadist hungry ono kill

greedy bile bomb fire works display bonus

Dark: You are completely incorrect in your idea of HL2 being majorly video card biased. I run the GeForce 4 TI 4200 4xAGP at 128 MBs, and at all medium settings at just above 800x600, I get a smooth 50... well.. not smooth, as I am used to playing at HL's 100 FPS all the time, but just as well as the ATI card of the time. The very newest Radeon x800 xt runs HL2 just a couple of frames faster than the newest nVidia card, and obviously the human eye cannot tell the difference between 144 to 149 fps, could they?

Edit: typo, clearification

Just a quick thought.... If NS is the first contact, and soon to be a war, that means the onos, fade, etc. were j ust merely scouts of the alien force, the same witht he heavies and JP and hmg.. does this mean we could see aliens that could totally own an onos?.... or weapons that could shread 5 fades in no time?

Edit, accidental repost.

um yes and no, imo

you have pritty much seen all the humans can offer bar extra weapons armor and vehcals

the aliens well every new armor and or weapon would pritty much be a new life form / up grade every vechal would be like a team controled alien sort of like a vechal but not

more structures, maybe even entire bases


alien cata comb reqiers a 5 gorge trade pool and 25 rez per gorge
is a spiral pod looks like a cream spiral drop on a cake, with a net work of intricate tunnels and a main room only one tunnel is low enough to the ground, so rines can boost into it the rest are jp access the veiw from inside the cata comb out looks like your inside a egg so you can see riens passing by

a energy well inceases the energy of all aliens in 500 units by 80% aliens can see the wells all tho a small chamber, you can tell were it center is as every said intigner of time a feild only aliens can see pulses from the center out


alien rez bank/ refinery, tis a shell looks liek six big bubbles from the top view
in side has 6 larger similer looking to a alien rez node, each one proccessing and storeing rez, needs at least two goriges workign ti to be effective, the effect in stead of throwing +2 to said players at what ever intervul throw them +6 rez
also just haveign a alien rez bank increaes indoviual alien rez pools by another 100 rez

alien grave yard, with out one aliens only get standard R4K, with one it triples per kill, also a alien grave yard will allow possable bone colection from past dead aliens inother words a alien can go there cheack out stats on allien kill deaths and see if theres any left over body parts the ycan consume for extra armor or ammo if and new alien attacks require ammo, they way i imagine it ther ewould be a sorting squide alien at the center jsut playing random idel animations and sorting out body parts and corpse, but the area arouns the squid for say 15 unit radius woud be randomly placed alien corpse giveing a cool area for aleins to hide in plain sight

nest allows room for three hives to be droped in one area also allows pooeld res so one may become a queen of sorts, queen equal mobil hive

queen useing grave yard = dark queen, a assult queen not a hive as such but abilitys revolve around rezarection style abilitys and maybe infestation

you have heard about the wyrum

you heard about the tallon

you havent heard about the trapper

you heard about the yabbie

i didnt go in deepth about the shield alien

you heard about the parasite

the maw consumes structure preec rez bank tis jsut a slow moveing ever growing blob of teeth

i had a spike monster truck wheel alien running about some were, sorrt of liek a destroyer druid the parasite was a scaled down version with totaly different abitisy thign thigns all about rolling fast over most terain and crushing most things in its path

pritty much i am looking at three alien bases strucutes per tree so three for mc you the the energy well, the tred mill, and the tremor tunnel

from them three structures you would have 2 new alien life forms the energy well being hte preec for the other two, the first life form needs the energy well and the tred mill, the other life form ned sthe tread mil and the tremo tunnel

this way the every thign stotaly not dependant on the cheaper weaker prewreach structure

for the hive there would be the nest and the grave yard

for rez the rez bank

for dc there would be the cata combs, the peartch, infesation walls

the sc would have over mind, pritty much whats in star craft see every thing istn a transport, is a huge clocked blim is a moblie sc, a nigh eyes tower allows aliens to see during the night of the day night cycle, and a snake pit is ground lvl rine scant see it till squad s run over it is triggerable by aliens

ocs have stamata tree, xeno feilds , bile guysers

all the normal aliens are just standard with one hive same with the three basic chambers but still requires hives

the oc structures require a nest every other chamber structure requires a nest and there prec structure


so give me a team and lets build this game still a engine needs to be choosen first

and thats only aliens, i have given throut into rines, but ther ejust to human and nanites are nanites mariens will have jsut about the same stuff the yhave in eveyr other movie

tho things like the ability to opne a black hole for rines would be cool, or the ability to crat and dro pa mini sun on the aliens would be another kicken string theary

but a tanks a tank, a barracks ia a baracks, a turret is a turret, nukes are nukes and a power plant is a power plant

I would like if the player has multiple choices to combine different creatures in the options menu, like lerk with onos or fade and get something new...

skulk + gorge = Mole
skulk + fade = Mantis
skulk + onos = ?

gorge + lerk = building bat
gorge + fade = bombardeer beetle
gorge + onos = some siege tank

lerk + fade = ?
lerk + onos = aerodactyl

(combinations not here named shouldn't be possible because they are futile - like skulk & lerk or so)

hum this was sort of what i wa saying, hehe at fertile coment,

aliens in the war as its been called need to beable to open up a trade window like you get in RP games and most rp mmpog

except have it in a few parts, ones a rez trade option the others a list of aliens each person can lock in and all memebers of this confrence trade window, once rez is sorted and all precs are valid can gast into a multi controled life form

likes a vechal just a alien, hell we used to do this in perfect dark on N64, single player always looked better, one person runs jumps the other aims and shoots

except this would be mass in depth i would so love to be the controler of a tail on a dragon like creature,

eg in the confrance window you got 4 people you cheack out the dragon
it says need 3 people billy passes over some rez to said person whos a little short
then leaves and fades to protect the gasting, sam says he wants to be the head it requires him to gast to lurk first he gastes comes back in, the group gastaing begins three little eggs combine to a big egg the big egg get slarge pop, out comes a dragon, sams the stearer hes got attack one which is bite, attack is hover, 3 fly, 4 is bile breath v humans *a alien flame thrower*

maloan is the tallons hes got slash, grapple, kick and crush

gorge is the tail hes got swip, whack bash and impale


ok so still not convinced take a look at the wyrum if your not convinced imageing big bio infection looking some thign like frank herbers dune sand wurms

requires two people ono for head and gorge for tail, plus X amount of res each
so they both gast to the preq life forms, then gaste into a huge long egg right out pops a spice wyrm largs as all hell, so sams the head again his attack are chomp, dig, devour, and rear up *pritty self exsplainatory the wrum can gain a fair amount of hight, so gorge hes hte tail right hes got shorten and leanghten as his first two attack, you may think well thats a bit dodge hes going to be bored stiff, well a short wyrum goes faster, and a long wyrums great for gaining that extra 25 units to close a distance weath the wyrums rearing up out of the ground to snap at a rine drop ship or what not its still very hand, third attack is fill tunnel, stops people following, 4th is mine tunnel, pritty much a acidic secreation lines the walls
gorges first two attack in the wyrums case are team work assultle and evasive
his 3rd attack is purly defencive and his forth attack is a lureing trap, as well as opens up new routes around hte map for sulk and alien travel

hum well ya may as well hear about the secata, its a five man monster truck wheel, you all jump in then roll down a hill, this things heavyly armored on the back, but has a weak bellie, so sams the head again and billy, maloan, gorge and margareata, are the 4 leg parts consisting of 3 legs each

the heads cool gets decapitate, cerl up,out reach spikes, spike flick

the other four can shoot spikes, roll,out rach spikes, chase tail

pritty much decapitate the two mandibels cut limbs and torsos in half
cerl up will make the critter go i na defencive pose, no bellie or head is reveled
this will allow hte boys to shoot spikes or if any one rolls the critter turns up right the more doing roll the faster it is, if some oens doing our reach spikes not only will it cloths line players but makes it faster also, spike flick will burn all players energy and will be like a nail grenade in all directions, chase tail, tho very slow moveing turns the cecater into a whirlpool of blades, sort of liek a tornado landing on a glass ware houes

*note a flick spike will flick all spikes and will take the tiem it takes players to regain ther energy back if they werent useing it to grow back, so it would manipulate there fire rate of spike shoot, and roll damage and out reach spike damage

with all this turning and such of the body to save players from getting motion sickeness from spending hour in a virtual whirly gig, the avatar of the cecata would be the only thing moveing with exceptions, if the cecata is crawling player seating would be like this

O
0-|-0
|
0-|-0 top veiw

when in a rolling pozzie would look like this

0
0/ \0 O
\0/ side veiw

and when in the chase tail veiw it would look the same as above but the pic would be the top veiw



eh i got to much time on my hands, stupid imagination

I like that idea.. I just couldn't understand it right.. But.. I got the basic.. Heh.. I would love to see this in NS2.. All the ideas..

I like the idea that a Gorge and a Skulk can mate.. And have little tiny babies.. Or not?.. Sry 'bout that.. Heh.. No.. No babies..

Hmm.. I haven't played NS for a long time (my computer is from 1997), so.. My specs aren't that good.. But.. Maybe i will get a new computer, just for NS, if some of these ideas comes true!..

* drools over NolSinkler's story *

Next gen siege cannons, reminds me of a quote from Red vs. Blue

Caboose:
So I say to the guy, "how're you gonna get the tank down to the planet?" And he goes, "I'll just put in on the ship" and I go, "if you've got a ship that can carry a tank, why not just put guns on the ship and use it instead?"

Tucker: You're ruining the moment. Shut up.

can we get actula nanite animations, cos its interesting the way i would asume nanites to work would be they starts buidling from the ground up, so in NS 2 the war, instead of rines building what they need to build can we get a nanite animation of them building every little fine detail of said structure or gun up, even if ther etwo seocnd blink of a eye on steriod nanties seeing a shot gun grow before my eyes would seriously improve my orgasums,

ofcourse you wouldnt see the nanties but there product of work being built infront of yours eyes really pays off

also nanites are sent around the map instead of haveing instant spawn time cos obiously it would cost millions to have nanietes every wer emaybe hte com can control them and there reprecented as green hazes on the map as instant spawn areas, so t otake a hive he has to send nanites there also if he random ly spawns some thign in it takes soem times for nanites to get there unles sthere there

the other side of the ball park would be alien creep infexstign het walls and only allowing aliens to build on it, of course ocs would also grow creep, but if the ocs were killed the structures would lsoe nurishment and die, the inzisable war of nanites v germs

exsackly i couldnt remeber what game it was,

nice bug idea for the hive room floor

would also be cool if the hive room was driveable very slow moveing but creeps its way across the map, as well as spreads alien guk

a good way to make it driveable would be to click on the hive rooms main hive, and it brings up a mini map then you click were and it will drop a line to that point and move there like and RTS unit

na it was more of a c&c pack up moblie command vechal amd move it idea, or like command center in starcraft oh well

it"s just the alien never seam to press closer or the distance in the battle they move there line forwards but never ther base all they can do with that is flank flank equal come at from the sides

err the creep infestation is starcraft thing mainly i sujested it for the hardcore players that like atmosphere and wont skin there targets to stand out like dogs err..

camo was what i was going for

hell i am just going to go draw up and sketch out all these idea and what they should look like imo

edit = typo spelt camo = como camo = camoflarge

Meh, read my thread

how about let parasite kill this time??? a parasite is a "babbler" bug, everytime it kills some1 is duplicates, that would be kool.

Ok, first time poster, long time player & reader here.

What I want for NS:S ?

a) graphic & model upragade

b) keep the basic idea & atmosphere (which is great)

c) customisable model for marines (skin, build, hair, helmet, ignisia and face)

d) build & bug fixes (obviously)

e) generally the same techs, weapons & lifeforms. (with minor fixes of course)

f) make the use of flashlight a necessity in some areas. Maybe upragadable nightvision for marines. And better "flashlight" for Kharaa.

g) clutter around the maps, such as barrels boxes & broken equiptment. Not too much!

h) weldable stuff around the maps (i know included in NS already) such as vents, bridges, doors and .. well stuff

i) better commander HUD, more commands.

j) macros, such as "INCOMING ONOS TAKE COVER" or somesuch.

Perhaps the fun of multi-level maps.

You could still do it all indoors but have it huge. Picture the atmospheric processor from Aliens.

I'd like to see dynamic infestation on the walls. As the aliens plant chambers/rts, the infestation grows on the walls around it. As marines take over, it gets pushed back. In infested territory, aliens get their innate regen.

Motion tracking only works in non-infested territory.

Parasites do no damage, make no sound, give no indication, but prevent medpacks from working.
Parasites can be gotten rid of using catpacks.

The bacterium has also evolved. Kill an alien life-form and it explodes a small bit. Too close when it happens and you lose some armor.. but not all at once. It's a slow burn for a second or two as the bacterium eats it away.

Marines have more and better weapons to compensate (flame-thrower, frickin' laser-beams, etc)

More commander activated map elements.

Field commanders. That's right, a commander who isn't in the chair. His hud contains a half-overlay of the current area he's in. He works to assist the main commander, thus allowing larger force groupings.

I very much like the idea of the alien life-forms diverging from earthbased more.
I also like the idea of certain alien classes being able to sort of duplicate the look of a marine.. enough so that if you were at a distance it might be tough to tell, but up close it'd be obvious. Of course.. you don't want to be up close.

-a few ideas for alien behaiver(or however u spell it)

in large groups skulks will make random sounds (hissing, chuckleing, stuff like that)

when idle an onos will stick its tounge out and lick its tusks

when at low health all aliens but onoses will wimper

skulk A.I.s will have a tendancey to follow stronger aliens

when idle a gorge will lie down and go to sleep ( KAWAII! )

when a lerk is idle on a ceeling it will clean its wings (if lerk hanging is ever put in)

-and a few human things too

when near a functioning hive mairnes will sometimes say "ew, what stinks here?"

if a commander is idle the comm chair will go transperent and it will show the commander sleeping with a book on his face

after the trouble is over marine A.I.s will sometimes shoot alien corpses

PH34l2 7H3 SKULK!!

The skulks would create a bigger clacking sound when cloaked, and gorges would grunt every 2 minutes.


Fades would sharpen their claws when idle, and marines will sit down next to a wall and run checks on their weapon and say, "hmm...", or "Sh*t"

well i would liek to hear a sexy womans voiceover for mmm anything, tool tips, tutorial? or something that kind.Or a robotics womans voice like in the resident evil movie.

The most likely implemented thing for NS:S would be new weapons

I absolutely love the little ideas like idle players performing scripted actions. That would add sooo much atmosphere to the game.. it would be incredible.

Dynamic infestation would be incredible.

I would like to see real physics on the hive, swaying as bullets tear into it. same with the chambers.

Customizable (to an extent) faces, shoulder patches?

Res nodes spread infestation.

infestation can cover light fixtures making areas much darker.

so many possibilities... dont blow it NS team.

i really like the sound of the war mode, and whats wrong with it being slightly starship troopers-esque, thats not a bad thing, making it have a cinematic feel is a pleasure to behold and play.

having it after first contact is great, you could think of after so much infestation of the Fronteersmen's ship's they have finally located several planets that the khaara are coming from. (yes its starship troopers-esque, but as i said...). as the frontiersmen land and start setting up camp, it can progress from small tent things (simple base, no real function atm) to bigger bases with medlabs, mortar spots, and various other upgrades. to get the people onto the planet, to start off with you could have dropships coming in every 3 minutes with extra troops (the ones that died) and the commander, instead of being on surface, could instead be on the orbiting ship (this does not mean he isnt killable) but still needs a comlink device in thier base. to start with, this could be a small satellite dish or something. and again, it can progress into a critical part of the base.

as for the khaara, i can think of larger structures from hive (bunkers, but alien) to build things in, and maybe gorges can tunnel? we would definatly need new lifeforms apart from these ones (think of the aa aliens from starship troopers again, but something that fits into the NS feel and gameplay).

i also think subcommanders is a great idea, but they could be on the surface, and could be appointed to different zones

and another small idea i had (well, maybe not so small) could be to make the frontiersmen, say if they loose a battle, be able to retreat if all the teams agree, and board thier orbiting ship. this would mean it would become more of an mmo and less of a straight fps. you could, for example, make the server browser be more of your able to select a planet (through a vote, preferably) and then have a two minute ETA for troops to discuss tactics ect. throught the use of IRC or something similar (i know its contraversial, and i havent seen a game do it ). maybe even make the ships customisable too (?) and other things as well.

i can mostly think of ideas for the marines, and i can tell a lot of people arent going to like my idea, so by no means, dont have a go at me im only giving ideas on what i would like to see.

as for the lag issue, its not an issue, one mod team is already planning to make servers linkable, so that they can share the load(think, player bandwidth isnt much, but you would probably need a gigabit between the servers at least)

does ANYONE think about the balance issues here? THEY HAVE TROUBLE BALANCING NS FOR 24 PLAYERS. Really u think they can balance a game for 3x larger maps or more and 100+ players and vehicles and new lifeforms and new weapons. I hate to be the party crasher but it just wont happen. I like the ideas for the alien behaviors though and would be awsome to see that implemented in reg ns .

hey scrap and super sulk you got enough rez to gasteate into a talon with me

dr fuzzy said there was a stealth bomber north west of our pozie huging the walls of that canyon

we got over lords in there cloaking the area so lets have a cloaked dog fight
and rip the wings off that peice of scrap