Exo Idea
Azaral
Join Date: 2012-11-19 Member: 172408Members
Join Date: 2012-11-19 Member: 172408Members
Had this idea while fighting as an exo the other day, though I'm sure lots of other people have probably had a similar idea. As an exo, skulks are a problem. A single skulk can solo and exo. A single free skulk can solo a 75 pres, ~120 team res exo. A single lowly marine cannot solo an onos unless said onos is asleep. Exo's are , IMO, woefully weak despite their abilities. Their jetpack is pretty useless. I've never seen or been in a situation where using them made any sense. Instead, I propose getting rid of the jetpack ability and instead have the jet thrusters be a burst that will push back anything smaller than an onos, along with damage. Give it a 5 second cooldown. Kind of an emergency defensive device. For it's cost, the exo has like zero defense and that is it's problem. An onos can operate on it's own, but an exo is dead if it goes out alone. Skulks are even a major problem when the exo DOES have support.
Comments
Also, those thrusters are actually only there to escape trapholes. Kinda silly.
Don't send exos out alone. Marines are supposed to work as a team, let the exo concentrate on the big guys while the marines pick off the skulks.
Now exos need a change because they are woefully underused compared to jetpacks, but making them able to work alone is not it.
Its really ridicoulesly easy to kill an inexperienced player in an exo as a skulk.
Its way harder with good players of course but usually you manage to damage the exo bad anyway.
My idea would be an enhancement of the motion tracker ability, it should mark targets who are not in the current field of view for everyone. Like a short range observatory. Maybe about half the range of a stationary observatory.
Atleast rework the current aimassist feature because its plain useless in its current state.
It only marks targets when you look at them for about 1 second, which is ridicoulesly hard when a skulk dances around you.
I agree that exos shouldnt be able to kill everything by going rambo but the reality in public is tragically that proper support is hard to come by.
However sometimes it feels rediculously underpowered.When you are attacked by 2 agile skulks its a tough fight.Its pretty close to 60% of exo win(with half or even less HP left if skulks are good or FPS is low) and 40% of skulk win from my experience(I've seen so many doomed exos spinning around in spectator).This is Top Tier for marines.
Now,does onos,when alone,have any problems with 2 LMG marines?Completely not,unless marines are on the second floor at central drilling.I call BS.
<u><i>We do not want EXO to be too viable on its own.But we need to either make Onos as crappy as Exo when unsupported or give Exo weaponry that - at least - can help him to roll over weak,free units like onos does.Antiskulk stomp should murder skulks that are near exo,but should be telegraphed.</i></u>
An exo guarded by a few marines is a potential game-ender, just as an onos guarded by a few gorges is a potential game-ender. On the other hand, an exo on its own is easy prey for skulks, and single marine with a jetpack (10 res) is basically immune to any number of onos and can attack them with impunity. A single marine with a flamethrower and jetpack can ruin your whole day as khammander, let alone onos.
An exo (50 res) can make it possible to kill a well-defended hive in just a few seconds. A double-exo (75 res, iirc) on its own can kill an onos if you see it early enough. There's lots of examples like this... the game is asymmetric. One marine with a grenade launcher and comm ammo support can potentially FUBAR an entire base, but he's basically unable to defend himself on his own. Going from quickly demolishing an entire base to being worthless is the difference of one skulk. Going from being an uberdeathtankofuberdeath to being an easy target is the difference between having a gorge with you or not, and whether you have adrenaline to charge effectively.
Notice what the recurring theme here is? Teamwork. Nobody can do anything alone. If anything, I'd suggest that a better way to equalize the power of exo vs onos would be to reduce the crag heal rate and cap the maximum healing rate, because a lone onos can just fall back to a crag or two and be fully healed in a matter of seconds, while exos need a lot more investment in highly-vulnerable MACs to have the same effect. MACs are multipurpose but they also need to be micromanaged to be effective and can't self-heal or heal multiple targets simultaneously.
Ehh.... on the other hand, marines get ARCs, which are pretty damn powerful and hard to kill while not unpacked. There's lots of variables to consider... TBH I'd say the game is pretty reasonably balanced, the biggest "problem" I can see with balance comes from how severe the effect is from having an inexperienced commander. Also, marines have no chance at all if they don't have at least a certain number of players on their team.
No.
While there is an argument to be made about the weakness of an exosuit when compared to an onos, you discredit your entire post by saying this. A skulk can solo an exosuit in the same fashion that a marine can solo an onos -- if the other one is AFK.
Thats not saying the Exo is underpowered however, realistically its marginally overpowered vs players/structures, but so limited that it quickly goes from OP to useless.
While there is an argument to be made about the weakness of an exosuit when compared to an onos, you discredit your entire post by saying this. A skulk can solo an exosuit in the same fashion that a marine can solo an onos -- if the other one is AFK.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I've done it.
Thats not saying the Exo is underpowered however, realistically its marginally overpowered vs players/structures, but so limited that it quickly goes from OP to useless.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Silence is golden against exos. Get behind them and you can usually kill them before they realize they are even being attacked.