Shade Cloak

PsiWarp

<div class="IPBDescription">Passive, not Active?</div>I would like to see Cloak become a passive ability again ala NS1, so lifeforms and structures are cloaked in the presence of a Shade (which is also cloaked).

Additionally, please reintroduce the Cloak opacity based on movement, so lifeforms and unrooted Whips in range of the Shade would not be as nearly invisible as other non-moveable structures :)

Camouflage seems fine the way it is. Once the opacity is added, sharp-eyed Marines should be able to tell if an alien is hiding in plain sight~

Question: Should infestation also be hidden inside a Shade's range? The illusion wouldn't be complete for hiding Hives, although the Marine could just shoot above a Tech Point for good measure (Hive check!)

Price

I guess if its passive, the commander have less to do.
But i would like passive more then active, because a lot of alien commanders don't use the shades ability.
The only problem would be, i guess its overpowered then.
Yesterday i was playing on marine side and i was like "huh, here is no hive"...then after the shade stops cloaking (i guess) i saw the hive, the whips and such, it was a crazy moment, because every alien attacked me ^^
So maybe its not bad that shade isn't passive.

antacid

I prefer the active method for two reasons.

1. It would be too strong as passive
2. It promotes alien teamwork.

The current camoflage is fine, if you walk slowly it keeps you cloaked similar to NS1.

PsiWarp

I think that if Cloak became passive, it should probably go without the buffing effect, like how being in Umbra temporarily gives you a small cloud to run around with, if you move out of it. So you would basically only have Cloak on you if you are in range (and that range is still huge, no doubt).

That way, it would promote more front-line placement of Shades, instead of the constant "activate per X seconds when players are spawning near a Hive" routine.

Although, antacid, you have a point with the teamwork. I suppose when Phantasm gets added in, it may yet provide more teamwork, with Comm. going "Hey guys, I've dropped a few Fade-tasms @ near Server Room, let's pull a fast one and force em ta Bacon, while I drop a new Hive @ Logistics!"

However, I would also be content if the Shade itself is passively cloaked, it's just so fragile...

IeptBarakat

I prefer the passive cloak over the activation ability, as the seriously repetitive 'tactic' of cloak rushes is irritating.

Just keep the passive cloak radius small and everything would be fine. And for the activation ability 'silence' could return, which would be helpful with hydra placements and skulk defense.

ScardyBob

I'd agree with the passive cloak. However, I would settle for it being an active ability, but you can toggle autocasting on it.

swalk

I really like this idea, it would also combine greatly with disorient.
And it should not override scan, so whenever there is a scan in the area, cloaking doesn't work.
However, the shade would need a new active ability.
Now, ideas for that? ;)
How about an ability to spawn an extra shade randomly within 5m range of the shade?
It would have half the hp, only last x amount of time, but could confuse marines if used right. Think mirror image from WC3.
That could be the shade's awnser to scan?

PsiWarp

@Swalk: The Shade's new Ink Cloud ability is set to do something similar to that, from looking at the lua coding.

It would create 3~ fake Shades randomly around itself, as well as a cloud that helps hide the real Shade among the fake ones. Seems pretty useful to block Scan visibility for Marine Comm.

If you use Dev 1 setting, you can actually try this out (along with Phantasms, cool!) on the Mature Shade. The Ink Cloud effect is looking pretty awesome.

Volccis

Active cloak ability is useless. You cannot build shades to cloak whips/hydras around map because if your teammates arent spotting targets BEFORE they reach in range of your shade and whips/hydras, marine(s) have just spotted your placement. If you cloak after marine(s) have spotted your placement, its just waste of time until marines have veeeery bad memory or just very stupid. What comes to hide a hive, well it may work for once but same thing again if your teammates havent spotted the marine, and it cannot been cloaked 24/7 so sometimes its visible. Also people see infestation around a hive or simply just shoot the area where hive would be and TADAA it becomes visible. Also when marines are spreading around they will know where is your main hive and where aliens are going to expand. So if they are going to get the hive, they just shoot it so cloaking is useless because targets will become visible when taking damage/attacking. Only use is to cloak skulks at start so they dont have to waste resources to get camouflage.

I dont see how it would be overpowered if shades would have passive cloaking ability. In my mind aliens havent much good stationary defensive structures because whips/hydras can be outplayed by running past or by killing them from range. But if they are cloaked they will serve their defensive roles better and once spotted alien commander can switch whips placement. Only good defensive "ability" in aliens are aliens themself. I rarely see whips/hydras to be as good as turrets until you have placed 10 hydras in wide area or few whips just behind a corner so marines cannot kill em from a range. Even mines are better than whips/hydras until lerk comes and destroy em all but thats the same thing what you see happening to your hydras/whips when marines are attacking em from range. So if the shades cloaking is active I would want to have some kind of evasing ability on it, so there would be a reason to use it when marines are attacking your structures. Something like every 1/3 bullet would miss and cloaked targets which are being attacked would be transparent and inform marines about evasing.

Also what happened to aliens teleport :( I see alot matches where marines are rushing hives and people have been separated around map and it takes too long to go to def. Especially defending third hive is pain in the ass against jetpack + shotgun marines which takes your hive down under an minute. Marines have PG, mines, turrets and aliens have whips, hydras and fast moving units but still too slow in late game to go to def hives against shotgun party. Also in high population server marines will easily get map control via phase gates if they can shoot and kill aliens and arent brain dead to def PG points.

Aliens definitely needs a bit love in structures. Like mroeh tentacles which can give a surprise buttsex.

PsiWarp

^- Agreed with problems for cloaking structures (obvious infestation is obvious!). Also, I don't like Disorient revealing the Shade's presence when it's fully visible most of the time.

Passive Cloak would help Whips from being decimated at range indeed. If Scanned, the Marines deserve to pelt them to death :P

1dominator1

Seconded for cloak being passive. This activatable business is part of a trend I see of making more and more busywork for the kharaa comm without giving him any actual substance.