Khammander has never been in a worse place than it is now
Blarney_Stone
Join Date: 2013-03-08 Member: 183808Members, Reinforced - Shadow
Join Date: 2013-03-08 Member: 183808Members, Reinforced - Shadow
There is no more room for choice anymore. You simply drop cysts, build RTs, and wait until you can afford lifeform and biomass upgrades. Then you watch the progress bar go up and wonder if there's anything else you need to be doing (there isn't).
Before we at least had to choose whether to research biomass or lifeform upgrades. No need to make that choice anymore, since you simply purchase a one-off "lifeform evolutions" upgrade and then go down an entirely sequential upgrade path. The only choice you have to make is whether you want to go crag, shift, or shade, but that isn't much of a choice since all are viable and its not like the upgrades you select will alter your build order anyway
Not to mention that there isn't much of a way to support field troops either. The drifter's lame pseudo "abilities" and bonewalls were pretty weak substitutes for medkits and ammo packs even before the update, but now that drifters cost so much and all of their abilities have been weakened there's even less of a requirement for commander micro assisting aliens in combat.
And finally, the coup de grace - the new balance changes put in place to prevent the commander from gorging at the beginning of the game. Having to balance field responsibilities and research priorities was always the part of khammanding that required the most creativity and multitasking skill, but now the game is trying to remove it. I anticipate that commanders will simply start skulking instead of gorging, but the intent to remove field comming is still there.
The whole thing is confusing - the devs clearly want us to spend more time in the hive, and yet they've basically removed any of the reasons we needed to be in the hive for the first place. I honestly think that at this point it wouldn't be hard to create a simple program that would allow a bot to run an alien team just as efficiently as a human player, that's how mind numbingly simple it's become. It's a shame, too, because I thought that the khammander was actually in a relatively good place in 250 and 251, I don't see why they had to go and erase all the progress that was made there.
Before we at least had to choose whether to research biomass or lifeform upgrades. No need to make that choice anymore, since you simply purchase a one-off "lifeform evolutions" upgrade and then go down an entirely sequential upgrade path. The only choice you have to make is whether you want to go crag, shift, or shade, but that isn't much of a choice since all are viable and its not like the upgrades you select will alter your build order anyway
Not to mention that there isn't much of a way to support field troops either. The drifter's lame pseudo "abilities" and bonewalls were pretty weak substitutes for medkits and ammo packs even before the update, but now that drifters cost so much and all of their abilities have been weakened there's even less of a requirement for commander micro assisting aliens in combat.
And finally, the coup de grace - the new balance changes put in place to prevent the commander from gorging at the beginning of the game. Having to balance field responsibilities and research priorities was always the part of khammanding that required the most creativity and multitasking skill, but now the game is trying to remove it. I anticipate that commanders will simply start skulking instead of gorging, but the intent to remove field comming is still there.
The whole thing is confusing - the devs clearly want us to spend more time in the hive, and yet they've basically removed any of the reasons we needed to be in the hive for the first place. I honestly think that at this point it wouldn't be hard to create a simple program that would allow a bot to run an alien team just as efficiently as a human player, that's how mind numbingly simple it's become. It's a shame, too, because I thought that the khammander was actually in a relatively good place in 250 and 251, I don't see why they had to go and erase all the progress that was made there.
Comments
@biz Comm is not useless, as it unlocks abilties and upgrades that are necessary for victory. But it's so ridiculously simplistic at this point that it requires virtually no thought.
@Zek I agree, the aliens were not originally designed to have a commander and it shows.
Drifter is a cool guy who is expensive as fuck and doesn't give you anything worth his price. I'll never buy more than one, ever. And he will sit right next to my RT. Drifter abilities are pretty much useless, except in very specific situations.
Compounded on top of the fact that UWE is trying to force people to sit in a chair and essentially do nothing while the rest of their team has fun, the build menus have been changed around for no good reason, and you're forced to drop a useless structure and pay for an upgrade on it for your biomass upgrades to apply to your base lifeform. UWE screwed the royal pooch on this one. I can learn to live with most of the other changes (Alien vision was fixed so it's not completely useless now), but the changes made to alien com have basically made sure that I'll never hop in the hive again.
Mucous and enzyme are still quite strong combo'd with a lerk. If anything enzyme + high RoF lerk bit is perhaps too strong for slaying phase gates. Storm is pretty stupid, I'll give you that, and I don't think I've ever really used hallucination.
What narfwak said. They are like race car fast now and are more like heros of typical rts design. The price may be too high.. But you should still give it a try.. With a couple of attacking aliens no marine would take the time to fire on your drifter who should at most peek and shoot /cast.
Exactly. They're trying to hard to make the sides symmetrical. It's simply not as crucial for the kham to stay in the hive as it is for the marine comm. Although he can't shoot with you, he can do something much better; Med, ammo drop, catpack, nano, and scan. But how can the kham support his troops? Drifters which aren't cheap, aren't instant, and simply aren't as powerful? Having an extra player on the field is just how alien is supposed to be. Marines can support from the chair, aliens support from the field.
With 8 res Drifter, same low HP, and the (admittedly neat) new patrol ability, it's not going to get better.
I'm sorry bud, but this isn't friendly for the competitive side either... we hate the change just as much as you do.
I've also contributed to so many (jetpack) marine deaths with good use of Bone Walls that it's almost criminal.
And when I used Contamination in the entire marine base and shifted in 5 Whips that nearly took out the PG and forced a beacon, I felt pretty good about it.
The Drifter price seems perfectly fine to me and I never hesitate even a moment to get another Drifter when I need it. Having as many RTs up early to create more pres for my team is worth more than any tres I could save by not spending it on a Drifter.
Perfectly fine... you could drop a harvestor with that res instead of spending it on a drifter which was killed for no gain other than a simple distraction... also if the marines couldn't hit a drifter for that long they have terrible aim. Another thing I hate about the update is that Contamination feature... WTF... marines have 2 bases full tech, aliens have 3 full tech... back and forth game for a long time, no clear winner... WHAT'S THAT 10 whips with bombard just magically popped up in base with no way to stop them from destroying almost everything... sounds fair.
I actually like the idea of embracing the asymmetry and giving the khamm a direct role on the field. What if the khamm had the ability to drop lifeform eggs for himself? I.e. you can drop an egg anywhere on infestation, and it gives you a lifeform to control with a limited lifespan after which you reappear in the hive.
Sounds just like ARCs.
Or give the Kham more meaningful structures that don't blow chunks in terms of usefulness and management. It's not worth trying to manage whips that have some of the shittiest responsiveness I've ever seen. Time-limited lifeforms are not worth the t.res... ever.
^ what that guy said
I don't think UWE intends to go back to the NS1 style of alien play, but it's getting closer in a way.
They could make it cost pres and allow the comm to accumulate it like normal. If you could add another skulk to a single engagement for 2 pres or whatever I certainly think that would be useful.
9 Biomass is supposed to be late endgame. It's to help ending marine turtles. You can't just make them pop up all at once, since Shifts have a global cooldown for echoing stuff. By the time you teleport the 5th Whip in, the Contamination is already receding and the Whips become unrooted and useless. Plus they are hardcountered by a single Flamethrower that destroys the Bombard Bombs and disables the Whips. Marines didn't actually lose any structure from me echoing the Whips in because they reacted in time. And they didn't even have a Flamethrower for that.
do you know how expensive it is to just buy everything?
it seems similar or even more expensive than older builds
Enzyme is by far the most useful, but its really only good for burning down structures. Enzyme + lerk would be insane right now, but I'm afraid you'd run out of energy and not be able to fly away xD
Shame it only costs a first-born gorge to afford a Drifter.
That is just wrong. Why should I shoot skulks that are free, when I can shoot a drifter that costs 8 res? The res damage counts, not killing a free lifeform that will respawn again. And if I die, so what, unless I have an expensive weapon, I am free to respawn as well.
1 free marine vs. 8 res drifter - good trade.
It's just an extreme example, I'm not trying to give strategic advice. The intended design for contamination is to break a turtle, but a turtling marine team can turtle so hard that they slay contaminates before they even get a chance to do anything. That's all I was trying to get at.