Alien Comm/Upgrade Suggestions

Rasputin

<div class="IPBDescription">Any suggestions regarding alien "command" or upgrades</div>I know there are already a few threads up with these kinds of suggestions, but I didn't see any threads specifically for this category. I was just checking out a flow chart of how Alien upgrades might work in NS2 ( <a href="http://www.ns2res.com/?page_id=318&file=NS2+Designing%2FNS2_alien_commander.jpg" target="_blank">http://www.ns2res.com/?page_id=318&fil...n_commander.jpg</a> ). I like the idea of having to sacrifice certain traits in order to become better at others.

So far I have one suggestion for the "attack damage" upgrade: I think Aliens (who rely more on sporadic and individual attacks than Marines) should also have a chance for every attack to be a critical attack, doing more damage than a normal attack. I think this would scale perfectly with increased attack damage upgrades. For example, a skulk with level 1 attack damage might only have a 3% chance of dealing a critical attack, doing extra damage. By level 6, this critical attack chance could be closer to 15 or 20%, with more extra damage than a level one critical attack.

I think this could be very simple to add into the game, yet it would add more depth and unpredictability. For example, a skulk could have a better chance at surviving a skirmish with a marine by landing a critical attack and killing the marine in fewer blows (especially if the Marines haven't upgraded armor yet). Any thoughts or additional suggestions?

Hawkeye

Well I suppose that could be just another trait for the slider. High levels of critical attack would be the equivalent of focus upgrade without the slower attack speed, but of course at the expense of one of the other traits. So if you wanted to, you could create a fast attack high critical attack rate (% chance of inflicting double damage), but you'd probably be very easy to kill and very slow (perhaps it'd make an excellent cloaked ambusher build for example).

RobB

So you suggest that the Hivemind has some kind of RPG like System to modify the Rank's Stats?
I'm not ok with this. One HM likes to have x at high speed, the other wants to deal them more damage.
If Players have no set values of speed and damage, this Game will die faster than a Fish on Land.

If that's a per player basis... excellent.
Since the Days Focus has been introduced I constantly whine how its absolutely against my "Juju".

Rasputin

I'm not saying it should do ridiculously high damage, but even without focus in NS1 it still took only a few bites to kill a marine. All this would be is a small chance for that to be fewer bites, depending on the level. I think it would be nice to add into the game at first so that it could later be used as a balancing factor, like if all of a sudden we find that marines are totally overpowered in one-on-one encounters with aliens. It would provide an extra dimension for the game developers to adjust to add more balance to the game. On the other hand if aliens prove way too hard to kill then these numbers could simply be reduced. If nothing else it will help keep a non-linear game less linear.

It would also be cool if parasite (assuming it finds its way into NS2) would benefit this critical attack chance somehow.

MarcusAurelius

I think the RPG-Hive Mind suggestion was one by flayra, so it's going to be in the game in the form of the alien comm. I'm not really sure if I like it either, but at least tweaking it like this would lower its down sides. I don't really understand the whole slider system, though, perhaps because I only looked at the flow chart and not the explaination, but I want the aliens to have the opportunity to have full upgrades if they play their cards right.
I wouldn't mind if aliens could aim for critical areas, sort of like fallout 3. Once the armor was down, the limb or head or w/e would be one hit away from loss. With a crippled limb the marine would be slow, or fire inaccurately or something, and would need a medpack to regenerate the wound over time; and if the wound is on the head it's game over (of course, head shots are harder, so it works out). Now, this is almost a direct copy of the fallout 3 system, but it's not like it's a really innovative idea so I don't think anyone would care. The idea of allowing aliens to aim their bites better through the slider, thus allowing them better chances to crit-hit (coined it) that way might be a way around the argument, too.