Onos Second Hive Ability: Berserk
Imbalanxd
Join Date: 2011-06-15 Member: 104581Members
Join Date: 2011-06-15 Member: 104581Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Buff the Onos to solve it's problems</div>So one of the most annoying things about the Onos is the role it is meant to fulfil. UWE have stated many times that the Onos is not intended as the be all end all life form that it very much was in NS1, instead it is supposed to be seen as a heavy siege unit, ideal for destroying structures very quickly, and being offensive against large groups of enemies. Now an Onos is all these things, but an Onos can also move around a map at roughly the same speed a skulk can, which is, for a siege unit... kind of retarded. However, the problem is that the Onos is too big, and too easy a target for him to be overwhelmingly slow, which ends up making him entirely non-viable for combat against marines, as we have seen in previous patches.
I propose a new researchable ability at two hives for the Onos, called Berserk. Berserk will provide the same benefit an ability with the same name would in any other game; increased attack speed and movement speed. Why would we do this when the Onos is as powerful as it currently is? Well, if a player has on demand movement and attack speed increase, it allows us to reduce the Onos' default movement and attack speed, returning him to the slow moving siege unit that he is meant to be. Once the Onos reaches his destination, he will be able to choose to use Berserk, which will, for a short period of time, increase his speed to the point it is at currently (maybe even a little faster, who knows). Another thing this kind of change may also affect is stomp. I feel that stomp is too spammable at the moment, which can lead to great frustration on the marine team. If the Onos was big and slow without Berserk, but ran on relatively low energy with Berserk, it may alleviate this annoyance somewhat.
The exact numbers would be complicated, for the following reasons:
First of all, it needs to consume a good chunk of energy. This is to prevent chain casting it, and being just as fast and maneuverable as the current Onos is at all times. Think of it as akin to a Skulk's leap. You can use leap to get around a map, but it uses so much energy, that if you happen to leap around a corner into a marine, you won't be able to use it for a good while again, which makes you quite vulnerable. Similarly, if the Onos detects a threat half way across the map, he should be able to use Berserk to get there faster, however he must accept that he may then not be able to use it to directly confront the threat, leaving him vulnerable. The next problem is the energy cost of gore. If the energy cost on Berserk is too high, it may then greatly limit the amount of direct attacks the Onos can make once he has used it. This could be addressed by tweaking the gore energy cost, or it could simply remain as a trade off.
That being said the kind of numbers I envision for this upgrade are as follows.
Berserk Upgrade available at second hive only.
Upgrade cost of 30 resources, which should sufficiently delay the 6 minute Onos appearance.
Energy cost of 70 (base aliens have 100 energy, adrenaline gives 200) with a duration of 8 seconds.
During Berserk, all energy regeneration is halved (energy regeneration rate for all aliens is 10 per second). This should be clearly visible after using the ability once or twice, so I wouldn't consider it a hidden mechanic, but I don't know about new players.
I propose a new researchable ability at two hives for the Onos, called Berserk. Berserk will provide the same benefit an ability with the same name would in any other game; increased attack speed and movement speed. Why would we do this when the Onos is as powerful as it currently is? Well, if a player has on demand movement and attack speed increase, it allows us to reduce the Onos' default movement and attack speed, returning him to the slow moving siege unit that he is meant to be. Once the Onos reaches his destination, he will be able to choose to use Berserk, which will, for a short period of time, increase his speed to the point it is at currently (maybe even a little faster, who knows). Another thing this kind of change may also affect is stomp. I feel that stomp is too spammable at the moment, which can lead to great frustration on the marine team. If the Onos was big and slow without Berserk, but ran on relatively low energy with Berserk, it may alleviate this annoyance somewhat.
The exact numbers would be complicated, for the following reasons:
First of all, it needs to consume a good chunk of energy. This is to prevent chain casting it, and being just as fast and maneuverable as the current Onos is at all times. Think of it as akin to a Skulk's leap. You can use leap to get around a map, but it uses so much energy, that if you happen to leap around a corner into a marine, you won't be able to use it for a good while again, which makes you quite vulnerable. Similarly, if the Onos detects a threat half way across the map, he should be able to use Berserk to get there faster, however he must accept that he may then not be able to use it to directly confront the threat, leaving him vulnerable. The next problem is the energy cost of gore. If the energy cost on Berserk is too high, it may then greatly limit the amount of direct attacks the Onos can make once he has used it. This could be addressed by tweaking the gore energy cost, or it could simply remain as a trade off.
That being said the kind of numbers I envision for this upgrade are as follows.
Berserk Upgrade available at second hive only.
Upgrade cost of 30 resources, which should sufficiently delay the 6 minute Onos appearance.
Energy cost of 70 (base aliens have 100 energy, adrenaline gives 200) with a duration of 8 seconds.
During Berserk, all energy regeneration is halved (energy regeneration rate for all aliens is 10 per second). This should be clearly visible after using the ability once or twice, so I wouldn't consider it a hidden mechanic, but I don't know about new players.
Comments
Other then that yeah it will disrupt the early onos and UWE will then have to find a way to buff aliens to make them not gimped as hell in the early game. Gonna happen eventually.