That's right, if you want to really understand what or who's to blame for the majority of the balance issues in NS 2 today, look no further than the alien economic model.
No, I'm not going to claim that imbalance can't or doesn't also occur as the result of factors such as faction accessibility, complexity, higher teamwork requirements and whatnot. I do however believe that these imbalances while significant, particularly in pub games, alone can't account for the persistent, unbudging, alien dominance that has been in place since the very first days of Beta. (Yes there were builds in which there was little to no alien dominance but that was never the result of a well-thought approach to tackling a systemic imbalance, rather these builds contained some poorly thought-out balance changes which were almost always reverted one patch later.)
First, let's look at the situation in NS 1: Aliens only had personal resources and as a result some players had to 'sacrifice' their p.res for the team's sake. 2 - 3 Players usually had to invest in things like hives, harvesters and upgrades. That's 2 - 3 players less that are going to play a higher lifeform later on in the game and ultimately also 2 - 3 players less that are on the field as a skulk biting RTs. In addition to this, NS 1 had a res for kill mechanic which rewarded better players by allowing them to play a lifeform ahead of the 'normal curve'. Aside from the notorious 'scaling issue' (The more players in a game the more the alien side had an advantage as those people sacrificing p.res for the team become a smaller part of the overall team presence) NS 1 was, by the end of its development, regarded as a fairly balanced game at the right team sizes (generally 6vs6 to 8vs8).
Why is this important you ask? Because ultimately we need to understand that a lot of things in place in NS 2 today were already there in NS 1. The marine faction, barring some changes to its lategame tech, was largely left unchanged, as were the majority of the alien lifeforms and abilities we have in NS 2 today. The largest place that took place was, you guessed it, the dramatic overhaul of the alien economic model. Anyone with any experience in RTS gaming will tell you that for an RTS to be properly balanced, the economic realities underlying each faction's design need to be identical. With NS 2 however, UWE opted to only go half way in converting the alien faction from a p.res based economy to a t.res one.
In doing so, they took a game that was precariously balanced on less aliens, and certainly less higher lifeforms, fighting a larger amount of marines and turned it into one where equal numbers of aliens would actively be on the front-line fighting marines and evolve into higher lifeforms later on. This while the marine side received practically no changes to cope with this changed reality: marines in NS 2 are still equipped for and balanced around fighting NS 1 style aliens when said aliens no longer exist.
Further more, the awkward half-conversion of the alien economy into a t.res one, with lifeforms unlike marine higher tech still being tied to solely p.res results in aliens having a significant TIMING advantage in regards to when their 'late-game' (or the biggest part thereof) approaches. The current marine gameplay feels a lot like a race against time, where it's: 1. essential to destroy as many alien harvesters as possible from the get go to delay the inevitable higher lifeforms from popping up and 2. absolutely vital they hold on to at least 4 - 5 RTs to have enough upgrades and tech to counteract those higher lifeforms when they do appear. Aliens on the other hand can be pretty content with just holding on to 2 hives and 3 harvesters for the biggest part of the game and because of p.res lifeforms they will still more or less 'break-even' with the marine late-game and have an equal if not larger chance of winning from that point onward. (As the result of more higher lifeforms being fielded overall against a faction that isn't designed to deal with as many) This also means that even if an alien economy is pressured and a commander has to constantly replace RTs, aliens are still able to get higher tech. (Making them much more economically resilient as a faction compared to marines).
In a nutshell, I think that pretty much sums up my train of thought on the balance issue. I DO have some ideas on how to address this issue, some more radical than others, if there's a demand for it I'll gladly write them out but for now I don't see much point in doing so. I'd rather the discussion focus on the actual issue first, as surely there's going to be some people out there that disagree.
Thanks
Edit: I summarised some of the main points brought up in this thread in regards to balance
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1s4zzrh027jfQ__Xe61tQC3U3Y94O4oSs-G079_J85xY/edit
No, I'm not going to claim that imbalance can't or doesn't also occur as the result of factors such as faction accessibility, complexity, higher teamwork requirements and whatnot. I do however believe that these imbalances while significant, particularly in pub games, alone can't account for the persistent, unbudging, alien dominance that has been in place since the very first days of Beta. (Yes there were builds in which there was little to no alien dominance but that was never the result of a well-thought approach to tackling a systemic imbalance, rather these builds contained some poorly thought-out balance changes which were almost always reverted one patch later.)
First, let's look at the situation in NS 1: Aliens only had personal resources and as a result some players had to 'sacrifice' their p.res for the team's sake. 2 - 3 Players usually had to invest in things like hives, harvesters and upgrades. That's 2 - 3 players less that are going to play a higher lifeform later on in the game and ultimately also 2 - 3 players less that are on the field as a skulk biting RTs. In addition to this, NS 1 had a res for kill mechanic which rewarded better players by allowing them to play a lifeform ahead of the 'normal curve'. Aside from the notorious 'scaling issue' (The more players in a game the more the alien side had an advantage as those people sacrificing p.res for the team become a smaller part of the overall team presence) NS 1 was, by the end of its development, regarded as a fairly balanced game at the right team sizes (generally 6vs6 to 8vs8).
Why is this important you ask? Because ultimately we need to understand that a lot of things in place in NS 2 today were already there in NS 1. The marine faction, barring some changes to its lategame tech, was largely left unchanged, as were the majority of the alien lifeforms and abilities we have in NS 2 today. The largest place that took place was, you guessed it, the dramatic overhaul of the alien economic model. Anyone with any experience in RTS gaming will tell you that for an RTS to be properly balanced, the economic realities underlying each faction's design need to be identical. With NS 2 however, UWE opted to only go half way in converting the alien faction from a p.res based economy to a t.res one.
In doing so, they took a game that was precariously balanced on less aliens, and certainly less higher lifeforms, fighting a larger amount of marines and turned it into one where equal numbers of aliens would actively be on the front-line fighting marines and evolve into higher lifeforms later on. This while the marine side received practically no changes to cope with this changed reality: marines in NS 2 are still equipped for and balanced around fighting NS 1 style aliens when said aliens no longer exist.
Further more, the awkward half-conversion of the alien economy into a t.res one, with lifeforms unlike marine higher tech still being tied to solely p.res results in aliens having a significant TIMING advantage in regards to when their 'late-game' (or the biggest part thereof) approaches. The current marine gameplay feels a lot like a race against time, where it's: 1. essential to destroy as many alien harvesters as possible from the get go to delay the inevitable higher lifeforms from popping up and 2. absolutely vital they hold on to at least 4 - 5 RTs to have enough upgrades and tech to counteract those higher lifeforms when they do appear. Aliens on the other hand can be pretty content with just holding on to 2 hives and 3 harvesters for the biggest part of the game and because of p.res lifeforms they will still more or less 'break-even' with the marine late-game and have an equal if not larger chance of winning from that point onward. (As the result of more higher lifeforms being fielded overall against a faction that isn't designed to deal with as many) This also means that even if an alien economy is pressured and a commander has to constantly replace RTs, aliens are still able to get higher tech. (Making them much more economically resilient as a faction compared to marines).
In a nutshell, I think that pretty much sums up my train of thought on the balance issue. I DO have some ideas on how to address this issue, some more radical than others, if there's a demand for it I'll gladly write them out but for now I don't see much point in doing so. I'd rather the discussion focus on the actual issue first, as surely there's going to be some people out there that disagree.
Thanks
Edit: I summarised some of the main points brought up in this thread in regards to balance
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1s4zzrh027jfQ__Xe61tQC3U3Y94O4oSs-G079_J85xY/edit