New alien support class
ShadowedEclipse
Join Date: 2007-08-15 Member: 61886Members
<div class="IPBDescription">(Kinda long tried to think it out thoroughly)</div>This alien (who I have not thought up any kind of name for) would be very much so a support class, not a combat class, and would be for messing with the marines buildings, not a hive/alien support like gorge is. It isn't very tough, maybe a little less hp then a gorge but it would be faster and more able to travel around the map, wall walking or something like a skulk. Not quite sure what it would look like but I think a serpent-like alien would be really cool with a sort of snakes head (appropriate for what it does - keep reading). It would be fairly small, but not tiny, and would be pretty fast.
First attack would be something akin to the lerk bite, really only there so that it's not completely defenseless but its still not really "dangerous".
Second would be a sort of parasite, but for buildings. Unlike a normal parasite it wouldn't show up to anyone but your life form but would tell you everything about the structure- What its researching, what its upgrading, its health, if its advanced or not and so on, (even what the com is doing if you pegged the CC) but it would only last a certain amount of time so that you couldn't just go rush and peg the CC then know everything thats going on all game. After a certain time frame the nanomachines would find and destroy it. It would be ranged, but it would be a limited range, you would have to get fairly close, but I think having to touch a structure could be asking too much for a non-combat creature for an ability that isn't THAT great (if it did more it would be worth it *hint hint, see below*. If you hit a marine with it, it would drain a very small amount of armor from them (5-10?) but deal no damage to their health, because its made for structures, not flesh and would not make them appear on the hive sight, like a skulk's para (I think skulks are scouts, so that should be just an ability just for them).
Third attack would be an equipment devour. It would be able to eat dropped marine equipment, effectively destroying it and would give a small amount of res to the team. It would have a shortish animation with it, something like a snake eating a mouse or something, where it could unhinge its jaw to consume the thing, but it wouldn't have a digestion time like an onos eating a marine, just a short animation and a short recharge time. Obviously since its still a life form it wouldn't really be able to rob guns out from under the feet of living marines, because it would get blown to pieces during the animation.
Finally, would be the ability to "infest" structures. No, not like Starcraft where you gain the structure, but instead you would disassemble the structure from the inside, and use the materials to turn it into DI, as well as destroying it. Now, so you can't just sweep into a marine base and take it apart before the marines could get there it would have to be a process. I was thinking something along the lines of you have to touch the structure, and then you latch onto it, becoming immobilized (this could have a cool but simple animation, where you kinda stick to it and little tendrils of infestation sink into the structure where your touching it) and it begins a progress bar. While your on it, it would "pause" the functions of the building. It wouldn't cancel upgrades or anything, just pause them, and if you got the life form off, it would resume. It also wouldn't cancel the functions of buildings that rely on the structure - turrets would stop firing if you infested them, but if you infested a TF it would only stop the TF from upgrading/electrifying, so the turrets would still fire. A resource tower would stop producing res until the creature was dealt with. The commander would no longer be able to select the structure (a big hint that something isn't right) and thusly not be able to recycle it to stop the infest attempt and get some res back. Not entirely sure how long it would take, it would take some tweaking, but would have to be long enough to let marines respond, without being so long its useless. However, once the bar was full, the structure (which I thought would start to look steadily more and more infested) would fall apart into a pile of broken machinery and spreading DI. Now obviously while your doing this you are extremely vulnerable, you can't move or defend yourself but I don't think this should set off the "your structure is under attack" warnings, this would make it WAY too easy to counter and you would no longer appear on the map (though they might see you approaching it) . However, you would still be able to see the creature latched onto the structure, (but the creature is small, so if it's on the far side of most structures, you very well might not see it) and if it's close to being destroyed, the infestation spreading through it. I don't think it should show visibly until the process is nearly complete, so that if an alien manages to sneak into a base that is being policed and hide behind the structure (which the marines really shouldn't let happen, but if the alien is a ninja, who knows) they would actually have a chance of destroying the structure, as it wouldn't show up that he was doing anything (except to the Com and anyone who decides to take a peak at the other side of the structure) until there were only seconds left. The alien might be able to cancel the process, but that should take a few seconds. Obviously if you infested the CC it would be VERY obvious to the commander as he suddenly wouldn't be able to do anything, and he could get out and shoot the creature off, provided it doesn't have some help sitting outside the chair waiting to eat the Com.
I think this alien could add some strategy and support to the aliens, by providing alot of information to the aliens about the marine tech, without them having to find out the hard way. It could help add some res to their team by eating all the marines guns, and make a Com careful about his drops, as anything left lying around, even med and ammo packs could be eaten to claim resources for the aliens. Finally, the creature could be turned into a kind of insidious structure assassin, capable of destroying structures suddenly and completely if they are not watched carefully, and also allowing the aliens to quickly take the area away from the marines completely, due to the DI being created.
I am not at all good with paint, nor can I draw so please don't ask for a picture, but your welcome to come up with something yourself. Please point out if you see any major flaws in a constructive way.
First attack would be something akin to the lerk bite, really only there so that it's not completely defenseless but its still not really "dangerous".
Second would be a sort of parasite, but for buildings. Unlike a normal parasite it wouldn't show up to anyone but your life form but would tell you everything about the structure- What its researching, what its upgrading, its health, if its advanced or not and so on, (even what the com is doing if you pegged the CC) but it would only last a certain amount of time so that you couldn't just go rush and peg the CC then know everything thats going on all game. After a certain time frame the nanomachines would find and destroy it. It would be ranged, but it would be a limited range, you would have to get fairly close, but I think having to touch a structure could be asking too much for a non-combat creature for an ability that isn't THAT great (if it did more it would be worth it *hint hint, see below*. If you hit a marine with it, it would drain a very small amount of armor from them (5-10?) but deal no damage to their health, because its made for structures, not flesh and would not make them appear on the hive sight, like a skulk's para (I think skulks are scouts, so that should be just an ability just for them).
Third attack would be an equipment devour. It would be able to eat dropped marine equipment, effectively destroying it and would give a small amount of res to the team. It would have a shortish animation with it, something like a snake eating a mouse or something, where it could unhinge its jaw to consume the thing, but it wouldn't have a digestion time like an onos eating a marine, just a short animation and a short recharge time. Obviously since its still a life form it wouldn't really be able to rob guns out from under the feet of living marines, because it would get blown to pieces during the animation.
Finally, would be the ability to "infest" structures. No, not like Starcraft where you gain the structure, but instead you would disassemble the structure from the inside, and use the materials to turn it into DI, as well as destroying it. Now, so you can't just sweep into a marine base and take it apart before the marines could get there it would have to be a process. I was thinking something along the lines of you have to touch the structure, and then you latch onto it, becoming immobilized (this could have a cool but simple animation, where you kinda stick to it and little tendrils of infestation sink into the structure where your touching it) and it begins a progress bar. While your on it, it would "pause" the functions of the building. It wouldn't cancel upgrades or anything, just pause them, and if you got the life form off, it would resume. It also wouldn't cancel the functions of buildings that rely on the structure - turrets would stop firing if you infested them, but if you infested a TF it would only stop the TF from upgrading/electrifying, so the turrets would still fire. A resource tower would stop producing res until the creature was dealt with. The commander would no longer be able to select the structure (a big hint that something isn't right) and thusly not be able to recycle it to stop the infest attempt and get some res back. Not entirely sure how long it would take, it would take some tweaking, but would have to be long enough to let marines respond, without being so long its useless. However, once the bar was full, the structure (which I thought would start to look steadily more and more infested) would fall apart into a pile of broken machinery and spreading DI. Now obviously while your doing this you are extremely vulnerable, you can't move or defend yourself but I don't think this should set off the "your structure is under attack" warnings, this would make it WAY too easy to counter and you would no longer appear on the map (though they might see you approaching it) . However, you would still be able to see the creature latched onto the structure, (but the creature is small, so if it's on the far side of most structures, you very well might not see it) and if it's close to being destroyed, the infestation spreading through it. I don't think it should show visibly until the process is nearly complete, so that if an alien manages to sneak into a base that is being policed and hide behind the structure (which the marines really shouldn't let happen, but if the alien is a ninja, who knows) they would actually have a chance of destroying the structure, as it wouldn't show up that he was doing anything (except to the Com and anyone who decides to take a peak at the other side of the structure) until there were only seconds left. The alien might be able to cancel the process, but that should take a few seconds. Obviously if you infested the CC it would be VERY obvious to the commander as he suddenly wouldn't be able to do anything, and he could get out and shoot the creature off, provided it doesn't have some help sitting outside the chair waiting to eat the Com.
I think this alien could add some strategy and support to the aliens, by providing alot of information to the aliens about the marine tech, without them having to find out the hard way. It could help add some res to their team by eating all the marines guns, and make a Com careful about his drops, as anything left lying around, even med and ammo packs could be eaten to claim resources for the aliens. Finally, the creature could be turned into a kind of insidious structure assassin, capable of destroying structures suddenly and completely if they are not watched carefully, and also allowing the aliens to quickly take the area away from the marines completely, due to the DI being created.
I am not at all good with paint, nor can I draw so please don't ask for a picture, but your welcome to come up with something yourself. Please point out if you see any major flaws in a constructive way.
Comments
I think some of the ideas would be cool as an extension to the abilities already present, but a "hacker" alien doesn't seem to fit.
I always thought the gorges bilebomb was weak, not because the ability sucked, but if I was ever close enough to use it, I would very soon be dead. I don't know if I ever saw a gorge bilebomb rine structures, with the exception of when the game was ending and it was more of like... a formality. I think it is because if i'm a marine and I phase in, am I going to shoot the skulks and lerks? Hell no! I'm gonna shotty the gorges I see first, then go after other aliens. Everyone does, we are like lead magnets. hehe
I rarely used bile bomb because it also took so damn long for it to work! By the time you started to do any damage, either the rines phase in, or they run to your position and make quick buisness of your life [or the comm just recycles the structure]. I seems almost pointless. Or at least, you should be able to stay cloaked and use it or something, but I think that's why it never gets used. The only exception to this was for certain maps where you would climb high in a vent, go gorge, then bile bomb down onto the marines RTs, PGs, TFs, whatever, but otherwise I never see it get used-
A cool thing about these ideas you had would not be like going inside a structure or anything, but rather webbing around it and causing it to stop worknig. It is realistic and would add a new feature to an already existing "weapon." Right now all the webs do is slow down movement, but it could be said that the webs themselves cause interferance with the electrical field/communications, so it would cripple structures. The turrets could be inaccurate, but still get some rounds off. PGs wouldn't work half as fast, or maybe they would cause random problems like phasing in without the wepoan you were armed with [How funny would it be to phase in with only a knife and be facing aliens, hehe]. Also, TF's range would suffer, so unless a turret is close it would just stop working. These are all simple proposed ideas BTW, but there could be a universal penalty, or it could be structure specific. Another thing is if the gorges web the RTs, they would work at 1/2 - 1/3 the pace slowing down incoming resources, forcing the marines to deal with them.
All the web penalties mentioned could also be used for other things. Say you want the rines to all walk into a choke point, just have the gorge web an RT, then everyone gets ready for an ambush. Something like that. It also gets the commander involved, so it's not just a gorge vs. marine soldier thing.
Anyways... I don't think the new alien hacker idea is great only because it becomes a "you vs. the comm." thing, and it also kinda replaces the way many other things work, but the ideas are very good. Many of them you mentioned and some I just thought of could be added as new uses. I hope so... I am looking forward to a new game, even if it *IS* in the future or whatever.