Suggestion: the "Sprout " a new alien building
puggerugger
UK Join Date: 2014-03-09 Member: 194626Members
UK Join Date: 2014-03-09 Member: 194626Members
So I thought of an idea that would give alien teams more strategies, especially ones involving stealth and comeback manoeuvres. A new building called the "sprout," designed to stimulate the mind of creative commands and give them something to do with all that damn res that builds up late game.
The sprout is a building that works just the same as other alien buildings, the commander places it and drifters, gorges and such accelerate the growth, it is rooted to it's position but can be teleported to other viable infested areas with echo. The catch is that is has to be built on a resource nozzle. What the sprout does is that it allows cysts to be built from it, like a hive, however keeping in mind that your team is wasting a resource tower on cyst support and that the nozzle needs to have infestation on it in the first place, meaning it can be hard to conceive it. So some features of it are.
The sprout requires level 3 biomass to build, this means that the aliens can build it while down to their last hive but it still requires some heavy resource commitment, making it harder to just get on up in crossroads and then cyst the entire map right at the start of the game.
The sprout costs 10 resources, a little more then a harvester but quite a fraction of the res required for a hive, seeing as the point of the thing is to be a "mini hive" that helps maintain the cyst chain.
The sprout, unlike the hive, does not infect the entire room. Again it's for maintaining the cyst chain when the enemy has taken the room outside your hive, not creating a big fortified base.
The sprout has 1.2 times the health of a harvester, seeing as it would be a priority target yet it does need infestation around it to survive.
The sprout does not at all collect resources, making a sprout is a risky move that shouldn't be a first resort.
The sprout and harvester would have a new mutate button to be used when you click on them, it would cost the same amount of res as it would to be the appropriate structure however the construction time for the new building is reduced by 75% when mutating between the two, allowing for quick changes between "ok we've restored the cyst chain, lets go back to getting res" mode and "O shit, they just took generator and have cut off the cyst chain" mode. The sprout can still be built on the commanders construction menu though.
The sprout visually would have to look similar to a harvester, due to the mutate feature. I imagined the "stem" being upright with the orange sphere looking like a stigma on top of it with the "ribcage" turning into bony "petals."
Obviously the marines should get some kind of tool that helps them "skip" an alien claimed room in order to balance this out, but I have no idea what as of yet, please give suggestions in that regard.
Reiterate this building is intended to give alien players more tactics to experiment with, especially with breaking spawncamp-related stalemates.
So there it is, my little idea, please tell me if you liked it or if I'm a total moron.
The sprout is a building that works just the same as other alien buildings, the commander places it and drifters, gorges and such accelerate the growth, it is rooted to it's position but can be teleported to other viable infested areas with echo. The catch is that is has to be built on a resource nozzle. What the sprout does is that it allows cysts to be built from it, like a hive, however keeping in mind that your team is wasting a resource tower on cyst support and that the nozzle needs to have infestation on it in the first place, meaning it can be hard to conceive it. So some features of it are.
The sprout requires level 3 biomass to build, this means that the aliens can build it while down to their last hive but it still requires some heavy resource commitment, making it harder to just get on up in crossroads and then cyst the entire map right at the start of the game.
The sprout costs 10 resources, a little more then a harvester but quite a fraction of the res required for a hive, seeing as the point of the thing is to be a "mini hive" that helps maintain the cyst chain.
The sprout, unlike the hive, does not infect the entire room. Again it's for maintaining the cyst chain when the enemy has taken the room outside your hive, not creating a big fortified base.
The sprout has 1.2 times the health of a harvester, seeing as it would be a priority target yet it does need infestation around it to survive.
The sprout does not at all collect resources, making a sprout is a risky move that shouldn't be a first resort.
The sprout and harvester would have a new mutate button to be used when you click on them, it would cost the same amount of res as it would to be the appropriate structure however the construction time for the new building is reduced by 75% when mutating between the two, allowing for quick changes between "ok we've restored the cyst chain, lets go back to getting res" mode and "O shit, they just took generator and have cut off the cyst chain" mode. The sprout can still be built on the commanders construction menu though.
The sprout visually would have to look similar to a harvester, due to the mutate feature. I imagined the "stem" being upright with the orange sphere looking like a stigma on top of it with the "ribcage" turning into bony "petals."
Obviously the marines should get some kind of tool that helps them "skip" an alien claimed room in order to balance this out, but I have no idea what as of yet, please give suggestions in that regard.
Reiterate this building is intended to give alien players more tactics to experiment with, especially with breaking spawncamp-related stalemates.
So there it is, my little idea, please tell me if you liked it or if I'm a total moron.
Comments
I'm sure there are other things you could do with this concept though, I like it
Just calculate for how long you delay lifeforms with 1 less rt and then think about how much easier it is to keep your cystchains alive with the lifeforms. Also, why would you sacrafice a resnode just to expand to the next (probably deeper in marine territory) node. That way you spend res on the sprout, the cysts and the new rt, compared to just 1 rt in a probably safer place.
Also a similar mechanic is already in the game with the infestation around gorgetunnels...
Res is one of the most important things in the game.
Maybe a structure that gives additional biomass could be considered?