Hive Sight for alien commander to make micro easier
Rise
Join Date: 2012-04-17 Member: 150595Members
Join Date: 2012-04-17 Member: 150595Members
The alien commander is in a different position than the marine commander in the sense that he has a lot more active abilities and controllable units that he is expected to manipulate during a battle to tilt things in the favor of his team. This depends on being able to easily see drifters and your own units, relative to the enemy, in order to best deploy a range of different combat abilities.
Because of this, his job would be a lot easier with a simple change to his hive vision that makes it easier to quickly discern everything on the screen at a glance by giving them different colored outlines.
Things that would have their own unique colored outline to differentiate them from each other quickly in the midst of a battle taking place in a densely structured area:
1. Alien lifeforms as one color.
2. Marines as one color.
3. Drifters as their own color.
4. Spawn eggs as white. Slightly different color for lifeform spawn eggs.
5. Whips as their own color.
6. Crags, Shades, and Shifts as one color.
7. Gorge structures as one color.
Give it a toggle switch for those who don't want it on.
I would also like to see changes to the way alien commander vision works. It's problematic trying to figure out where to place walls or ruptures when half the time you can't even the marines on the screen because presumably your aliens don't have direct vision of them.
I'd like to see this tweaked so that it's more forgiving about when it shows marines and structures to the alien commander. Maybe if they are within a certain radius of your aliens they show up on the hive commander's screen. You could also allow vision of the marines to linger for a period of time after they are no longer near your aliens or in their line of sight. You could also consider allowing certain structures to reveal marines to the commander.
I don't believe this would present problems for balance because marines typically don't try to hide and sneak around. It's usually the aliens who have the sensory advantages. So I don't believe it would result in any bad effects if you expanded the ability of the hive commander to see enemy marines on his screen. There are probably very few situations where he would benefit from calling out marine positions to nearby aliens who don't see them. Chances are in most cases the aliens will be aware of what's going on around them. It's the commander who currently has a subpar unstanding of what is going on due to limited vision during and prior to battles.
Because of this, his job would be a lot easier with a simple change to his hive vision that makes it easier to quickly discern everything on the screen at a glance by giving them different colored outlines.
Things that would have their own unique colored outline to differentiate them from each other quickly in the midst of a battle taking place in a densely structured area:
1. Alien lifeforms as one color.
2. Marines as one color.
3. Drifters as their own color.
4. Spawn eggs as white. Slightly different color for lifeform spawn eggs.
5. Whips as their own color.
6. Crags, Shades, and Shifts as one color.
7. Gorge structures as one color.
Give it a toggle switch for those who don't want it on.
I would also like to see changes to the way alien commander vision works. It's problematic trying to figure out where to place walls or ruptures when half the time you can't even the marines on the screen because presumably your aliens don't have direct vision of them.
I'd like to see this tweaked so that it's more forgiving about when it shows marines and structures to the alien commander. Maybe if they are within a certain radius of your aliens they show up on the hive commander's screen. You could also allow vision of the marines to linger for a period of time after they are no longer near your aliens or in their line of sight. You could also consider allowing certain structures to reveal marines to the commander.
I don't believe this would present problems for balance because marines typically don't try to hide and sneak around. It's usually the aliens who have the sensory advantages. So I don't believe it would result in any bad effects if you expanded the ability of the hive commander to see enemy marines on his screen. There are probably very few situations where he would benefit from calling out marine positions to nearby aliens who don't see them. Chances are in most cases the aliens will be aware of what's going on around them. It's the commander who currently has a subpar unstanding of what is going on due to limited vision during and prior to battles.