Cysting (and mental health)
aeroripper
Join Date: 2005-02-25 Member: 42471NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, Constellation
Join Date: 2005-02-25 Member: 42471NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, Constellation
So I've played a lot of alien comm, and the more I play it, the less I like cysting as a mechanic. How come? Because of this:
*Nanogrid cysts go down momentarily due to marine shooting them*
... 2 seconds later: "You need to recyst nano"
*marine is still running around shooting cysts*
... 2 more seconds later, some else: "you need to recyst nano"
*Later on some other part of the cyst chain goes down for literally one second*
"... you need to recyst cargo"
Does anybody else find this mechanic absolutely maddening? I'm pretty on the ball as comm and nothing is more infuriating than having to hear people constantly on the team tell you to recyst while you're already in the process of correcting it. It's so bad sometimes I wish I could turn off the cysts on the minimap for other players. Anybody else feel this way when comming sometimes? There's got to be some other mechanic that doesn't rely on so much tedium like this.
*Nanogrid cysts go down momentarily due to marine shooting them*
... 2 seconds later: "You need to recyst nano"
*marine is still running around shooting cysts*
... 2 more seconds later, some else: "you need to recyst nano"
*Later on some other part of the cyst chain goes down for literally one second*
"... you need to recyst cargo"
Does anybody else find this mechanic absolutely maddening? I'm pretty on the ball as comm and nothing is more infuriating than having to hear people constantly on the team tell you to recyst while you're already in the process of correcting it. It's so bad sometimes I wish I could turn off the cysts on the minimap for other players. Anybody else feel this way when comming sometimes? There's got to be some other mechanic that doesn't rely on so much tedium like this.
Comments
There was talk of making cysts mature over time resulting in more health and faster regen. This would effectively make those cysts at the front lines be more vulnerable than the ones farther back -- which makes sense.
... All the while having some angry man yell at you while a cyst or two pop across the map.
It did seem to be less of a problem in previous builds before 250, at least IMO, it should be replaced entirely with a different mechanic. Maybe change it so you infest a power node with one big cyst, then you can build cysts from there locally in that room. You might get a few shot at, but its not a big deal till marines are able to kill the big cyst taking residence in the power node?
That's why I often go Gorge at the start of a round, and follow the comm's cyst-chain as it expands...healing every cyst along the way to speed things up.
Usually I arrive at the 1st nearby res node just im time, to see the harvester dropped, ready for me to speed up as well.
Maybe gorges in general should take their job more seriously (keeping all alien lifeforms healthy).
When I travel the map, I always heal damaged cysts I encounter on my way...and check my map for damaged stuff (red areas).
And alien comms work closely together with such a gorge (preferraby 2 of them), if they are smart.
Then the health of the cyst chain becomes less of a concern for the other players.
I've had the privilege of playing together with a comm who understood this...he even kept a drifter close to me all the time, to assist my building efforts, and enzyme my team-healings and bilebomp attacks in battle.
I rushed gorge tunnels we got 3 gorges myself included and got a tunnel from sub-nano/sub-cargo/cargo-nano... Used gorge infestation to build cargo/nano RTs... Eventually used cysts to connect overlook, c12, and pipe...
It was a fun round and I saved at least 15 res in minimum cysting for nano and cargo rt's which ment that at most gorge tunnels cost 5 tres and allowed us to quickly establish some map control...
I wish I could have heard some of the rine confusion
"aliens don't have a comm they haven't cysted out of base"
"There are no cysts to nano... But it's gorged up so I guess we'll ignor it for now"
Oh fun times...
Still, it's nowhere near as bad as all the things that get said to marine commanders so don't sweat it
Gorges are really good nowdays. Not only do they speed up harvester building like 300x, they're deadly as heck with spit. A drifter nearby to enzyme or armor-spray a gorge? That's a bunch of dead marines. :P
I forgot about that red circle of doom...
I wouldn't want the game spending more than the bare minium, by default, as long as i can manually improve my chain still.
Would love to be able to click on or within range of dying cyst and have it auto fill in the blanks like it normally does now from nearest connected cyst.
Also if you can cyst back from dead cysts, why not be able to cyst out from gorge tunnels if it comes w/ a small chunk of infestiation?
This is my problem.
The new cystem is great for first time cysting, but fixing a broken chain is hell. Not only can you cyst entirely the wrong direction, but it no longer displays links properly so I can't even tell if the cysts I'm placing will re-link the chain or not and I end up placing them much denser than necessary.
Cysts will never leave NS2. Thats like saying "Let's remove power nodes and let marine structures last without power!" or "Let's remove skulks ability to wall-climb!"
Then again, 250 completely changed every mechanic and switched every role, so they may "surprise" us again(which I say negatively)
similarly, drop a crag in nano, and say f it, it's almost impossible to keep nano coated with a dedicated team decysting,unless you clear their forward gate or keep them contained, in which case you win anyway. alsI good comms will drop a cyst as soon as the delay is up, and and good players will understand the delay, and will be on the way to clear the marines. I actually love the speed that infestation clears. I can solo harvesters all the more easily now, and the harvester will go down even if I die usually. unless a gorge is there.
You can. But as the "automagical cystem" is supposed to make cysting less tedious and as the penalties for a broken cyst chain are much higher in 251, I'd rather not have to go back and fill in each gap individually.
[EDIT] Actually, one feature I'd love to see is the ability to start a chain from a specific cyst or from a specific hive. Mainly because it'd allow you to reinforce existing chains.
[EDIT2] Perhaps Shift+Click to start the chain from the previous origin.
Pretty much. But most people are just annoying by nature because they're inexperienced and naggy, so i try not to hold it against them. "Commando! do we have phasegates yet?" 1 minute into the game. More often than not followed by "commando is bad! no phasegates! eject!", as they die from moon walking away from a skulk running in a straight line.
What i usually do is turn the voice volume slider to 0 when playing or comming in pubs. Easier than muting people every round.
Must be really hard... Better have only matches where nobody is talking. That are da best!!!11one
Not mentioning that a good alien com is busy helping it aliens with drifters and may sometimes be to busy to mention the broken chain.
Typing "cyst xyz" doesn't hurt; losing the harvester does.
Begging for tech on the other hand is annoying.
I would say 2/3 in order to save money. Also having both modes would be better. Sometime the automatic distance is clearly a problem for putting it in the safest spots.
QFT
Filling the blanks isn't bad but you would have to set a maximum area otherwise it could cost a lot of res.
Cyst "From a tunnel" is logic and can bring some advantages (hiding alien presence).+1
My rant on Cyst ?
*Potent marine will have 3 extractors while you only put the first.
Because:
-Infestation is slow to expand
-The last cyst expands the last (annoying).
That's where you can see if a game is lost or not from the first 3 minutes.
ex: If you start with Pipe on Veil, you have to go to C12, Cargo, Nano. A little far away.
With a potent marine team , they have before you create a single extractor, Topo, Skylights and Overlook. And they will push on nano or cargo right after. At the same time they get Subsector. Big problem for alien as you have a front line which can be flanked. And the cyst goes away. Especially on this map, because Nano has been nerfed so much that no gorge can bile in there except from the "front door"...
-Knock knock...
-Who dat?!; hey piggy nice to see you, take this bullets as a token of my kindness...
So alien have to get it. Or else clear it.
Slowing down alien with this Cystem is sometimes a dead game before playing it.
*Apparently we can't "blind" a marine with cyst anymore.
It would be a good thing to blind marine when one kill a Cyst with axe, even damage him. They would be forced to be far away and to shoot at it, which give a window of opportunity for alien. They will kill less Cyst (ammo), while alien kill marine and not extractors. Sounds fair.
*Flame thrower.
Need i say more than i always voted against FT. Worst than no aim GL...
Someone should do something about FT. I would prefer it to be designed for making maximum damage on building and Cyst (hive excluded) than on everything. A potent marine equipped with FT just don't need cover from his mates. It's better than ARCs. Alien should have a proper counter to FT. I don't see one except throwing water but we are not able to do that are we ?
*Structure damage/Whip
Structure damage. You have to deal with infestation radius around a cyst in order to avoid damaging a marine structure.
ex: You want to help with a crag close to the fight location. If attacked a structure will produce an alarm which makes it easy for a potent marine commander to spot the crag and send someone to "cut" the wounded alien coming back here. Far too easy.
Whips just don't do nothing on solid ground. So infestation should not damage structures. it ruins the stealth mode (clan play won't use it but still i like it). Especially when Cyst take time to expand. Else, make Whips able to be autonomous. Even if you have to make them mature or buy an evolution.
I'm not against the new system, but there is definitely something to do about it.
Now that effects mental health.
Commander must wait messages makes cysting more infuriating than these requests too.
Because you would rather push territory to instantly lose it? Without phase pubs can't even hold a natural RT much less a second Chair, and they die so fast on offense they desperately need those phases to reinforce.