New Marine Equipment Idea: Chemical Suit

Blindga

<div class="IPBDescription">Slow, Anti-poison defense gear.</div>I saw a thread about gas masks, and wanted to expand on that idea with another one I had spinning around in my head. Rather than a cheap implement that serves a single purpose, I have an idea for a more expensive armor/suit type upgrade that serves a wider purpose and has more weakness to counter it's strengths.

So...

<b>Chemical Suit (requires prototype lab research and arms lab)</b> An advanced heavy duty suit that is designed to resist poison and corrosion while protecting the user just like a soldier's armor, allowing the usage of weapons and other infantry implements. Having been originally designed for non-soldiers and cleanup purposes, the defensive benefits of proper chemical protection were just too great to overlook, and the suit was redesigned with armor for battle. This suit is armed with a complete suite of detection and defense mechanisms to protect it's wearer against the toxicity of the Kharaa. A gas mask is capable of filtering thick toxin in lerk gas, and an armor sheath that resists the corrosive bile of gorges are standard with the suit. An on-board camera and scanner can find Kharaa bacteria and detect hidden threats from a distance and add their location to friendly HUDs. Finally, a antidote administrator backpack reverses any potential poison damage the suit may allow with specialized medicines and serums.

Stats:
Cost- 35res
Armor Increase-20%
Speed-0.85% of normal speed.
Lerk gas damage reduction- 60%
Bile Bomb damage reduction- 40%
Gorge spit damage reduction- 15%
Skulk parasite damage reduction- 100% (immunity)

Specials:
Bacteria Scan- Replaces flashlight with a scanner that can be switched on for a short duration before running out. Acts like an alien vision for the suit. Enemy Kharaa and structures will glow brightly, even if hidden, and will paint them on everyone's map as long as a line of sight is held. If line of sight is not had, then the enemy or structure will be hidden again. The effect also increases brightness; neutralizing darkness for the effect.
Duration-15s
Recharge time- 15s (exact same to use)

Resist corrode- Armor is not lost to bile bombs or spit. Health is still lost, but not armor points, so resistance is always high against chemical attacks.

Antidote- Any health lost to gas, bile bomb, spit, or other poison based damage, is slowly healed over time by antidotes; essentially canceling any attempts to wear down the chemical suit with chemical attacks. Physical damage will not be healed by antidote, but poison based damage will. It takes time to activate, and the user must remain out of combat for a moment for the effect to activate.
Heal rate- 1pt every 0.5s (poison damage only.)
Heal delay- 2s of non-combat to heal

Other:
Can't jump.
"

I figure the marines would have designed something to protect against the horrible effects of the Kharaa bacteria, and I tried to come up with an idea as to how that might work in combat.

The main ups to this is that it grants over half damage reduction from lerk gas, and a good bonus against bile bombs. Poison damage is swiftly healed outside of combat, making the prospect of a lerk or gorge fighting one of these even less appealing. The extra armor boost is just to make this not totally worthless in an actual fight.

The downside is that for 35 res, you get a minimal increase in armor, a speed penalty, and a bulky frame. This suit would only be ideal for situations in which lerks or gorges are prevalent, and is overall expensive and weak as a solid defense implement. The scanning utility isn't as good than a commanders scan order is. The use of this suit is highly specialized, but does it's job well.

Let me know what you think.

DanielD

While it's far to expensive for what it does, I like the direction. Maybe comm can upgrade gask masks or something.

Simini

Great, just what we need, something to make the marines more powerful and to make the Aliens more useless.

Too expensive as well, being expensive makes it near enough useless and not worth implementing and being normal price/cheap makes it OP.

So no, the marines are currently fine as they are, the Aliens are the ones who need more options/buffing.

Blindga

<!--quoteo(post=2016710:date=Nov 9 2012, 02:29 AM:name=Simini)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Simini @ Nov 9 2012, 02:29 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2016710"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Great, just what we need, something to make the marines more powerful and to make the Aliens more useless.

Too expensive as well, being expensive makes it near enough useless and not worth implementing and being normal price/cheap makes it OP.

So no, the marines are currently fine as they are, the Aliens are the ones who need more options/buffing.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

You're absolutely right.

Any additions to the marines at this point would be overpowered without some adjustments to the alien side as well. You certainly wouldn't want to give new toys to only one side. Personally, I would like to see an increase in the effectiveness of lerk gas if this suit was added, mostly because it doesn't do nearly enough damage given how easy it is to avoid already.

aside from balancing though, I've seen plenty of ideas for the aliens too. The Alien Maturation idea seems like one of the most well written and thought out ideas for the aliens yet.

But on different note, what would be a more reasonable price? 30 res? 25? What do you guys think?

ChaosXBeing

I think the cost would be a matter of balance, and as such difficult to nail down. It would depend on the strength of alien poison attacks (not just Lerk gas, as you're idea includes bile bomb, Lerk venom, parasite and Gorge spit as well), if any new poison effects are ever added (personally I'd like to see Hydras start poisoning their target) and how quickly the suit recharges your health. It would also depend on when the suit would hit the field. I'd be against early game, as this would be before spores would even be researched, and if it hit the field late game it'd probably never get used (what with everyone rushing for Exos and all). So if it's mid-game, hitting the field at about the same time as the Advanced Armory and W/A 2, then maybe 20 res would be reasonable. Though, I think it's primary use would become less of a bio-counter against poisons and similar, and more of a Shade buster, allowing marines to spot cloaked bases and hives.