the difference is astounding. heres my main observation:

beta 1 was a huge nerf to aliens. we all know it, we all complained about it. however, we adapted to the nerf and brought it back to a point where aliens were winning about 50/50 again. then comes beta 2.

in beta 2, aliens got back 90% of what they lost in beta 1. so the major upswing to that is that since aliens are used to now playing hardball 100% of the time, they roll over marines who have become used to playing half-sloppy and waiting on JPs to be done. As always, this will re-balance itself after people have been playing for a while, but its easily one of the better balance patches we've seen yet.

bottom line is this: aliens have been given the ability to better protect themselves with DC. onos is still a lightweight, but a stronger lightweight not to be just rolled over anymore. either team can cause mass damage to the other team with well organized strikes.

in essence, this should very much be a TG welcomed beta. the major point here is that we now HAVE to use strategy to outwit the other team. misdirection and precision strikes are the new mojo as marines have fast/cheap tech and aliens have stronger lifeforms with quicker reflexes. i've been browsing around some of the other 3.2 servers and darkilla's infamous "chess with guns" quote is becoming more true by the minute. each piece of the map has to be monitored at all times and if one team strikes one place, the other team has to counterattack or they're going down in flames.

i'm thoroughly pleased with the adjustments and map tweaks as i've seen them. time for us all to start enjoying NS again, finally.

also, to comment on beowulf's rt comments: in beta 1 and previous releases, a non-adren skulk who started biting with full energy would drop an rt to exactly 25% health (by the bars) before his bite slowed down at 0 energy. the new rt HP's drop that to half of what it was, meaning a slow biting skulk will only take an extra 16 seconds to kill an rt at energy 0 vice 32 seconds as of beta 1.