The fatal flaw of Northern Strike....

[Dare978Devil]

People who play it are WAY too good at 2142! (yes, I realize that this statement means I stink). When I play NS, the teams are filled with high ranking players. I get killed at least a dozen times a round, sometimes more often, and sometimes half a dozen times by the same guy. In my humble opinion, Port Bavaria and Bridge at Remagen are the two best maps in the entire game (2142 and NS included). They are great maps with much to offer 2142 which are not available in standard maps. But the people who play them very likely only play NS over and over again because I am getting my *** kicked repeatedly.

On normal 2142 servers, I would say that there are a sufficient number of new players that I am somewhere in the middle in terms of skill. I can generally finish any normal round with between 20-30 points, but generally finish with less than 10 on any NS map.

Has anyone else discovered this phenomenon?

DD.

[jackal22]

they would have done better to give away the maps for free and lock the upgrades to NS buyers only. at least that way the game would be played more.

[Wizrdwarts]

Nah, then people would be even more pissed off at what would be EA selling them unlocks for money.

[jackal22]

yeh but at least then that way people would have had a chance to play more maps. some of the ns ones are quite good but when i play them it gets a little dead because they are always on ns only servers.

OR they could have slapped a big intel sign on all the guns like on the mags and on the knee pads or something and given people the choice; buy ns and no adverts or dont buy and get intel everywhere (and get ns free)

[DrDanielsson]

Strange, I've never found that. I tend to get about the same amount of points in 2142 and NS, sometimes more in NS as I occaisionally whore the goliath. I think NSs fatal flaw (if it has one) is that not enough peopl play it, Liberation and bridge are definately 2 of my favourite map, and noone play bridge on titan.

[Quemical]

My KD stinks when i play NS maps. I agree, you are more likely to find experienced players in NS. Guys that have had this game for a short time and don't play that often, may have no clue what NS is and can care less about, so they just stick with 2142 Vanilla.

[m3talc0re]

Yeah, on titan maps, I'm pretty good. I tried to play some NS maps to try to get the NS ribbons that come with unlock points and I completely sucked on 'em. It sucks too because I need those unlock points to finish getting my upgrades. I'm missing almost a whole tier in the Engineer kit. I have no pilum

[Skates]

yeh but at least then that way people would have had a chance to play more maps. some of the ns ones are quite good but when i play them it gets a little dead because they are always on ns only servers.

That is because when you run NS with Vanilla maps you lose 1/3-1/2 of the server any time it changes to NS. I think the maps are better designed than most of the Vanilla maps and the two titan maps are great. Just not enough players to play them. I bought NS when it came out and wouldn't care if they opened the maps up to everyone. At least then I could mix them in with the others on our servers.

[jackal22]

^ yeh thats what i mean, they should have made them free so you everyone can play them so that you get more enjoyment. i bought it but i wouldnt mid if they released it free now, would actually make me come back to 2142.

[Quemical]

Texas Teamplayers mixes city maps, titan and NS. When the map switches to NS half the server dumps gets kicked because they dont have it. Sometimes that isn't the case and it's pretty cool that 1 server switches it up like that

[vanilla]

NS for everyone!

[AllFoamNoBeer]

NS isn't noob friendly.

Large maps, goliath, tough to control hachimoto etc.

[Twizzz]

I'm in about the same boat as the first guy. Normal maps, I fall in mid-pack usualy. On the NS map, tend to be low. I'm more inclined to say it's due to the fact that I don't know what I'm doing and I'm not familure with the maps, more so than the other players being that much better.

Still, Nothern Strike maps are some of my favorites, I'm glad I fianly bucked up and bought the up-grade.

[Quemical]

The real flaw was releasing 2142 with so many bugs that ppl refused to give EA more money. Even if it was as little as $10

[Dare978Devil]

Fast and dirty guide to NS unlocks.

Hi m3talc0re,

I am a relative noob, so if I can do it, so can you. I bought NS only because I found out there were 10 unlocks you could get instead of career points, but it turns out I like it better than vanilla 2142 and mostly play NS maps. The unlocks are all easy to get, and here is how :

Assuming you have fulfilled the time requirements, play Bridge at Remagen on the 32 player board (the 64p board changes the Goliath spawn point). Be EU so you get the Goliath. Get in the Goliath as soon as it spawns, and hit F5. That will put you in one of two seats with the non-machine guns (can't remember what they are called). The other seat is F2, but is usually taken by Goliath campers. All of the defenders line the far bridge, so just start picking them off. You can usually get 5 kills before the Goliath gets near enough that it is in danger of being destroyed, and then if it makes it far enough that you can see the flag, you can usually pick up a few more easy kills. When it is destroyed, respawn and wait for it. Repeat. In any round, you can do this at least 4 or 5 times, and easily get the following unlocks :

Cold Front Unit Service Ribbon - 15 kills on any NS map
Transporter Duty Ribbon - 9 kills from Goliath
Vehicle Excellence Bronze, Silver, Gold - 5 mins, 8 kills, 12 kills
Arctic Combat Bronze, Silver, Gold - 6 kills, 10 kills, 14 kills

That is 8 unlocks for playing one round (again, you have to have the time put in as well, which means 4 hours global in NS vehicle as well as 5 hours playing any NS in total.

For the remaining 2 unlocks, they are a bit harder, but not much :

Winterstrike Ribbon - Destroy 2 Goliaths, 2 speeders, and die 5 times by each vehicle. Play the same round, but play PAC. Run to get into the rail gun on that first bridge the Goliath has to pass under. Then just start blasting away at the Goliath as it rumbles towards you. Use the right-click aiming to take out the 2 panels on the side, you can almost always kill it before it gets to the end of the bridge, and since you are in the rail gun which delivers the biggest blows, you almost always get credit for destroying it. That gives the the required Goliath kills, plus it usually adds 5 player kills towards your Cold Front ribbon. Do that a few times in a round, and you can get both awards easily. For the Hashimoto kills, you don't even have to blow up the speeder, just kill the driver, it counts as a speeder kill. I am sure you can take care of the dying requirements :-)

Snowflake - 5 roadkills via the Speeder and 40 global kills (with speeder).
Play Port Bavaria, always play PAC (speeder is a PAC-only vehicle). Spawn at the base camp and jump in one of the two speeders. Zip to any of the 3 ports, and start blasting away. Usually, you can only get a few kills this way, what you need is for the enemy to take over any of the three ports. Then you are are home free. Simply speed into the enemy port using your boost key (shift), and run over guys until you are dead. Repeat. You can usually take out at least 3 guys before they get you. It's very easy to get 5 roadkills in a round this way once you have the 40 global kills.

Cheers,
DD.