Spawning Selection (Especially Aliens)
HeatSurge
Some Guy Join Date: 2012-09-15 Member: 159438Members, Reinforced - Supporter
Some Guy Join Date: 2012-09-15 Member: 159438Members, Reinforced - Supporter
OK, I have a suggestion which I think deserves its own thread.
My basic idea is that you should be able to select your spawn location while you wait to spawn (this is ESPECIALLY important with aliens).
Right now, spawning is, kind of "random" in my experience. Shift eggs are prioritized for aliens; other than that I think the spawn queue is filled from the oldest to the newest IP (for marines) and from the oldest to the newest spawned egg at hives (for aliens).
In my opinion, you should be able to select, especially as alien, where you spawn. For marines, this isn't much of an issue because with phase gates you can usually get to the chair you need to be at very quickly. With aliens, it's definitely not the case and sometimes you can spawn somewhere really far away which might mean the difference between a lost and a won game (e.g. hive in cargo getting attacked, skulks spawn at pipeline, have to run for 30 seconds to get to cargo).
If you could select/reserve the egg you are spawning at, it would also solve the "egg gets killed, timer resets to 12 more seconds; egg gets killed, timer resets to 12 more seconds" problem when marines are killing eggs somewhere. This problem is EXTREMELY annoying right now.
Additionally, for aliens it would be awesome to be able to select your evolutions and life form as you're spawning (and the time to evolve just gets added onto your spawn time). I know aliens are supposed to spawn in "waves," but realistically if a player wants to evolve to e.g. a fade, or put on evolutions to his skulk, he'll evolve when he spawns anyway, so why not have players make their selections while they're waiting instead of looking at a timer?
I think if aliens (and marines) could select their egg/evolutions and IP to spawn at, it would make the game a LOT more fun, and balanced. Less randomness = more strategy/tactics.
Discuss :-) .
My basic idea is that you should be able to select your spawn location while you wait to spawn (this is ESPECIALLY important with aliens).
Right now, spawning is, kind of "random" in my experience. Shift eggs are prioritized for aliens; other than that I think the spawn queue is filled from the oldest to the newest IP (for marines) and from the oldest to the newest spawned egg at hives (for aliens).
In my opinion, you should be able to select, especially as alien, where you spawn. For marines, this isn't much of an issue because with phase gates you can usually get to the chair you need to be at very quickly. With aliens, it's definitely not the case and sometimes you can spawn somewhere really far away which might mean the difference between a lost and a won game (e.g. hive in cargo getting attacked, skulks spawn at pipeline, have to run for 30 seconds to get to cargo).
If you could select/reserve the egg you are spawning at, it would also solve the "egg gets killed, timer resets to 12 more seconds; egg gets killed, timer resets to 12 more seconds" problem when marines are killing eggs somewhere. This problem is EXTREMELY annoying right now.
Additionally, for aliens it would be awesome to be able to select your evolutions and life form as you're spawning (and the time to evolve just gets added onto your spawn time). I know aliens are supposed to spawn in "waves," but realistically if a player wants to evolve to e.g. a fade, or put on evolutions to his skulk, he'll evolve when he spawns anyway, so why not have players make their selections while they're waiting instead of looking at a timer?
I think if aliens (and marines) could select their egg/evolutions and IP to spawn at, it would make the game a LOT more fun, and balanced. Less randomness = more strategy/tactics.
Discuss :-) .
Comments
I suppose you can argue it's intentional, but in my opinion it would promote longer "battles" for tech points which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
In the one sec before you spawn (you can't even read the entire text before you do so). Frankly, its a poor substitute for just choosing your spawn location on the minimap at any time you desire.
I agree with op, choosing the wanted egg or at least egg group (hives, shifts) would be great.
Firstly, there can be a lot of eggs. While having the choice to sift through the 20 eggs at hive 1 in order to spawn at hive 2 is arguably better than having no choice at all, its a bad mechanic with bad usability, and including it would be bad design. In this case you need to look past the plain utility it provides, and look instead at the aesthetic consequences it has for the entire game. You can't expect people to go through tens of spawn points looking for the perfect one.
As for the mini map selection, here's the problem I see. In all games that I have seen implement this form of spawning, it is never a request. You don't click a spawn point on the map and say "please sir, can I spawn here?". Its a demand, you as the player are saying, this is where I will spawn, and the only way I will spawn anywhere else is if I choose to do so. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way in NS2. You could choose one hive as your spawn location, but if there aren't any eggs, you may just be popping out on the other side of the map. That's just the way it is.
I would prefer if something strategical like troop deployment was left up to the commander. I think it was mentioned earlier in the thread, but I think it would be just as good if the commander simply selected a primary spawn location, which could be a hive or a shift. Then, players spawning in would be assigned the closest available egg to the location of that primary structure.
If there's no eggs, let them know how long the queue is and how many eggs are left. So if there's a region with a butt ton of eggs, they know to spawn there to conserve eggs.
Marines could use a spawn selector per CC as well, but marginally less important due to PGs.
Now, if Aliens had Hive Teleport, this would be a different story...
Now, if Aliens had Hive Teleport, this would be a different story...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
so much win
^THIS! A much better solution that gives the kham some connection to his troops. And the kham needs some more strategical influence anyway.
It'd also be nice if eggs could be laid out more dynamically in the environment: ceilings, walls...
Probably too much work for 1.0 though :(
Probably too much work for 1.0 though :(<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I believe the devs said in the Q&A this week they don't want to do anything like that.
Shame. They wouldn't have to make it so you HAD to choose somewhere to spawn, could just make it an option by bringing up your minimap and clicking on a location.
Pheromones right. Some sort of green transparent cloud the commander drops. Any nearby eggs affected by the cloud immediately get assigned to players who are dead and spawning in. Players assigned to an egg affected by pheromones spawn in 50% faster. So if a player is waiting to spawn, and has 15 seconds left, and then gets assigned to a pheromoned egg, that 15 will tick down in 7.5 seconds.
The egg assignment period would last 10 seconds, that is to say that, after using pheromones on a group of eggs, anyone who dies within the next 10 seconds would be automatically assigned to those eggs, and would benefit from the 50% faster spawn until they spawn, even if assigned in the 9th second. Once the 10 seconds are over, any egg affected by pheromones but not yet assigned a player would be destroyed.
A simple button on the building menu of every hive and shift, that allows the kham to set it as the default respawn-building is enough.
You could even advance this with allowing the aliens to chose their egg for them-selfs. But the kham-chosen would always be the first selected.
A simple button on the building menu of every hive and shift, that allows the kham to set it as the default respawn-building is enough.
You could even advance this with allowing the aliens to chose their egg for them-selfs. But the kham-chosen would always be the first selected.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
But thats soooo boooooring and unalien like. We need GAS CLOUDS.
Ye probably. I just wanted the alien-esque scenario where a marine walks past an egg and it instantly hatches and attaaaacks.