The Alien Arc
deathshroud
Join Date: 2010-04-10 Member: 71291Members
Join Date: 2010-04-10 Member: 71291Members
Not sure what name exactly to call it but a crab like creature thats reasonably large and more costly than a single arc but way more durable. The crab (creep, lice, crawl or scarab whatever name you like) moves slowly from the hive of its creation, its a large creature with no direct way of attacking however once it burrows into infestation the shell opens up like a clam and spores begin to slowly spread all around it eventually covering a large area, possible for them to spread from 1 room to another if close enough. The spores act exactly like lerk spores and will continue to be released until the creature is either killed or moved by the commander.
Being large and rather tough the crab provides cover for aliens as they progress up corridors. However the crab has 1 major weakness. rooms with power hurt the crab. it dislikes light and will only survive for long periods within rooms with destroyed power nodes.
the purpose of the crab is to either lock down areas you dont want marines entering or to deploy them as close as possible to a marine base and then begin to fill up the part of both the room the crab is in and their command room with spores.
Marines can combat crabs by either sneakily powering up rooms they are in, heavy GL bombardment, firing from a safe position outside the psores range, using exos to progress through the spores or flamethrowers to clear them.
Being large and rather tough the crab provides cover for aliens as they progress up corridors. However the crab has 1 major weakness. rooms with power hurt the crab. it dislikes light and will only survive for long periods within rooms with destroyed power nodes.
the purpose of the crab is to either lock down areas you dont want marines entering or to deploy them as close as possible to a marine base and then begin to fill up the part of both the room the crab is in and their command room with spores.
Marines can combat crabs by either sneakily powering up rooms they are in, heavy GL bombardment, firing from a safe position outside the psores range, using exos to progress through the spores or flamethrowers to clear them.
Comments
Maybe make it so that the spores can be somewhat avoided if the marines go in crouching.
I cannot imagine sieging in a slow deployable with a slow medium-size aoe that won't penetrate walls.
Still I like this idea! I don't like the idea though of these having a ton of hp. Nothing is more of a kill buzz than seeing ten arcs migrating alone and knowing you could spend ten minutes biting them and not get through them...
Of course the alien team could use it for defense as well, but perhaps a 3 hive 30 res cost. So it really only serves its purpose when the aliens have the advantage. On maps with 5 tech points the aliens controlling 3 and marines 2, but the marines controlling a double res location the crab would certainly be useful.
Would the crab be available in the first 5 minutes of the game?
I could prevent egg lock early in the game. I have been on both sides of that strategy and I don't have anything against it or developing a counter for it.
I lol'd.
Kinda like the principal of the idea, but i dont think what NS2 needs is MORE ai units. Perhaps i'd like the idea better if it were a stationary building akin to NS1's siege turret.
Kinda like the principal of the idea, but i dont think what NS2 needs is MORE ai units. Perhaps i'd like the idea better if it were a stationary building akin to NS1's siege turret.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
i dont think this would be good because aliens need SOMETHING for extra map control hydras are basically useless, whips are only useful in hives and are not useful for map control to the marines sentries which can ###### your day up as a alien so something mobile that can give aliens some extra map control would be good, and can easily be countered by GL's and Flamethrowers and lots of bullets
qft.
what do you mean by "qft"? and anyway flamethrowers are useful but some don't see the investment in buying one unless they have jetpacks which i find a bit OP seeing as the jetpacks recharge in 2 seconds which need a nerf so the have a longer recharge time
no that would make it OP it will just be stationary when it releases its spore cloud but if a marine decides to attack it with a axe it can use its claws to attack the marine
Instead, it could be a stationary structure that is planted by the Kham. Perhaps 2 hives unlocks research and allows the creation of one--3 hives allows the creation of another, leading to a maximum of 2 at any given time. Of course, the spores should not stack, and there should be some minimum distance between the two required.
At least this would give aliens time to react to an exo train given that their turtling ability is generally horrid.
As the idea stands, it would be ridiculously hard to get get rid of requiring teamwork gl's and probably fl's also. An arc could. Even if you could get near it, it would still be hard to kill because of the high health. Something that strong would have to have to be easily killed if not placed right or way expensive.
On the basis of the idea, I do think a alien structure that puts out some umbra would be great. Umbra would hinder marine site, would also prevent 50% of damage to all structures in vicinity, and help aliens defend a location. A crag and an little umbra structure with some whips and a shift would make a great forward base.
that was my basic idea a line of defense that is difficult to get past, part of it can be easily countered by Flamers also before they put this is if ever fix the hitbox for spores it'll make it a bit more even, imo it goes well with the asymmetry
of the game, it'll be the turtling for the aliens they cant turtle effectively, marine turtles are hard to break while an aliens turtle can be broken in seconds with the right weapons and within a minute or so the hive is down and marines win.or as you said MaLuS a forward base, but theres a thing with spore if a noob was in the spore cloud and didnt know how to turn on aliens vision he'll be as blind as the marines,