Infection
Friendly Gorge
Join Date: 2009-01-28 Member: 66215Members
Join Date: 2009-01-28 Member: 66215Members
I was just watching something on National Geographic before and got an idea for skulks. the aliens obviously aren't the most hygienic bunch, and I was thinking that bacteria would build up in the mouths of the skulks and that an untreated bite could get infected and slowly make health drop, or lower the speed of the marine infected. The Tyrannosaurus Rex is speculated to have used this type of "biological weapon", an enemy or prey would die soon from a wound inflicted because of the bacteria from the T-rex's mouth. The infection could be healed, but the marine with it would have to make it to an armory or receive a med pack. The wound would become infected if it is not healed within say 25 - 30 seconds. Maybe Heavy armor could stop the marine from becoming infected, like spores can not damage a Heavy. Perhaps a marine who was being digested would get sick depending on how long they were in the Onos' stomach.
Comments
Enable medpack to heal and remove the infection, and this would completely solve the problem of dumb rambos.
Indeed, if you don't stay with your teammates, you don't get a med pack. I'll change my original post
In this case infection would just be another spore-like weapon, given to an additional alien, which wouldn't really add anything new or unique to the game, imho.
I don't want to derail this topic into another rambo-discussion, but you seriously need to stop that silly rambo-bashing.
Ask yourself in case you are commanding, what if most marines don't follow orders or are too new to seriously contribute, and just one marine runs off alone to cap you very necessary and valuable ressource towers.
Should he be punished for doing the right thing?
Should you refuse to drop him res towers and medpacks, just because he is alone?
I don't want to derail this topic into another rambo-discussion, but you seriously need to stop that silly rambo-bashing.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I don't really understand why people are up in arms over "rambo-ing" no one ever seems to mind "ninja-ing", which is very much the same (albeit a bit more effective at times) and most of the time you end up alone on the maps anyway, because your team-mate died or ran off to cap another res node. I just thought it would be cool to see marines take better care of themselves and team-mates, rather than crouch in a corner with 7 hp and no armor. It might also improve communication, because when people are dying they tend to actually ask for help or find another marine to help them.
The only thing I do not like about med-pack healing is that the infection would become more of a nuisance and waste of res than an actual motivator for the marines to head back to base (which would help the aliens during base rushes, as an infected individual would die if not given proper attention).
At least in NS1, an actually infection would unbalance. 30-25 delayed seconds gives enough time to heal (if the marine was bitten, (s)he loses HP, so has to be healed anyway). If want to be sure, make that infection only works on armorless marines, so it loses the critical HP it needs to have to survive another bite (a.k.a "I need med!"). And about base rushes, dunno how NS2 will work, but in NS1 marines start off offensive, so it would also cause a more defensive gameplay while it should be agressive. (and for dumb rambos, ramboing would only be viable defending the base).
<!--quoteo(post=1699063:date=Jan 31 2009, 03:15 PM:name=pSyk0mAn)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(pSyk0mAn @ Jan 31 2009, 03:15 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1699063"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Should he be punished for doing the right thing?
Should you refuse to drop him res towers and medpacks, just because he is alone?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This doesn't makes sense. If he is beeing a stupid rambo, he should be punished at all.
If he is a good player doing the right thing, he should have skill enough to not be bitted, or shouldn't rambo at all.
(If still he was bitten, then the other team is good to overwhelm him).
Yeah, "Komodo dragons drool copiously, as shown below. Their saliva is not venomous, but the mouth of a Komodo dragon is so full of bacteria that a bite from one almost always leads to infection. If untreated, the infection is usually fatal."
Ask yourself in case you are commanding, what if most marines don't follow orders or are too new to seriously contribute, and just one marine runs off alone to cap you very necessary and valuable ressource towers.
Should he be punished for doing the right thing?
Should you refuse to drop him res towers and medpacks, just because he is alone?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I don't see why a very specific scenario should determine why ramboing should not only be a viable strategy, but it should be even encouraged by preventing good ideas from being implemented into the game.
And who said the comm had to refuse to drop him res towers and medpacks? It's a game design, not a player philosophy which everyone must adopt.
If we should choose between implementing an idea which encourages teamplay or implementing an idea which encourages solo play, why again do you prefer to encourage rambos again? There's absolutely no logic behind it other than not wanting to get "punished" which makes about as much sense as saying that marines are "punished" for having aliens added as opposition.
And who said the comm had to refuse to drop him res towers and medpacks? It's a game design, not a player philosophy which everyone must adopt.
If we should choose between implementing an idea which encourages teamplay or implementing an idea which encourages solo play, why again do you prefer to encourage rambos again? There's absolutely no logic behind it other than not wanting to get "punished" which makes about as much sense as saying that marines are "punished" for having aliens added as opposition.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
If you read my post carefully, you would realize that the rambo sidenote had nothing to do with the main idea presented in the first post.
I gave my opinion and reasons, why I don't like this idea, in the first half of my post.
The 2nd half was just a reaction to :
-"Enable medpack to heal and remove the infection, and this would completely solve the problem of dumb rambos."
and especially:
-"Indeed, if you don't stay with your teammates, you don't get a med pack. I'll change my original post"
...which I consider bashing of ppl running off alone, wether they do the right thing or not, and thus I tried to give an example of someone running off alone, but being useful.
Of course, I'm all for ideas/suggestions to punish or, even better, not reward players that don't contribute to the game, but I don't think that was the main purpose of this thread as you can clearly see in the opening post.
In this case infection would just be another spore-like weapon, given to an additional alien, which wouldn't really add anything new or unique to the game, imho.
I don't want to derail this topic into another rambo-discussion, but you seriously need to stop that silly rambo-bashing.
Ask yourself in case you are commanding, what if most marines don't follow orders or are too new to seriously contribute, and just one marine runs off alone to cap you very necessary and valuable ressource towers.
Should he be punished for doing the right thing?
Should you refuse to drop him res towers and medpacks, just because he is alone?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
^
l
l
He's right
But, while I like this idea, I would <u>not</u> want to see this on every skulk right from the get-go. I'd rather see this as an upgrade which skulks (or other kharaa - not like skulks are the only dirty aliens) can choose from an array of other power-upgrades.
3rd support drop by comm? ammo+meds+antidote?
Always that idea too..
Antidotes only administered by team player? Anti-rambo while poisoned? (like welding)
I love 'support' units in any game I play. I will gladly weld until I die if need be for the team.
Another idea...
Medic robot... (since NS2 devs soo obsessed with robots now heh)
Another idea...
***Our side convo***
New players tend to stick with other marines (and are generally easy to find in a game as their movements are hilarious...) You can generally spam follow me and get them to assist you... Though you have to put up with their reaction time of a dead sloth...
Its when they are 'somewhat' aware of the game that they start to 'venture off' and think they have the game 'down' ... Is when it scares me as a team player.
Rambos are rambos... It happens.
***End side convo***
Ewwwww
*Slaps idea of antidote only being from team members*
Too much anti-rambo
You can of course add it as an upgrade researched by your alien commander to upgrade the skulks a bit, but it doesn't fit for skulks anyway, you should add it for the parasite attack probably and make it less powerful or a high end upgrade, but it shouldn't be anti rambo or pro rambo or whatever, because if you punish people for choosing different strategies you will end up playing something with less variation or expected moves than chess (chess is okay but I'm just trying to give an example here <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" /> ) and that is nothing what we want, we want a dynamic RTS FPS game with some dynamic infestation and stuff.
and of course this has just become another rambo thread <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" /> it is at least amusing to see how it changes
-they area an area of effect attack with a massive energy usage and fired from a distance
-they only effect those marines who are inside the AOE
-upon said marines leaving the AOE, the effect ends
-while insides the AOE, the only thing which prevents the spore damage is Heavy Armor. Healing packs may heal you, but the damage keeps coming
Meanwhile, the suggestion here as I understand it would work like this:
-requires a skulk (or other kharaa) to get close enough to bite a marine
-any bite attack would do bite damage AND poison the marine
-the poison effect would last until the marine is either healed or dead
Again I think this would be good as an upgrade for any Kharaa to choose, but I also think its very powerful - not just a 'stupid addition'. A marine isn't guarenteed to recieve a med-pack, and this could potentially do serious damage - even if only bit once.
I'm sorry it feels like total nonsense to me.
One might argue that the comm should be alert enough to look out for marines who are in need of medpacks. But the maps are so big, and sometimes you are just busy with something else, it is frankly impossible to keep track of every single marine's health and see whether he is poisioned throughout the game. It gives the aliens too big of a leg up.
All you need to do to wipe out a group of marines if spore till their armour is gone, then get one single skulk to bite each marine only once. Only once and they will get poisioned if the comm is busy or does not have the res to provide that many medpacks.
I don't think having a marine's armor being at zero is a good idea, that would mean this would hardly ever work.
This also doesn't need to do as much damage a Lerk's Spores. In fact, it shouldn't do as much.
After reading the most recent few posts, I do have to agree that this could be overpowering.. but I think it could be balanced properly.
You thought <b>Onos</b> was a hit-and-run alien? (Actually, that's basically the problem with devour as well.)
Wait. Actually it makes sense to have skulks be more hit-and-run.
But, having considered the possibility... No, screw infection. Bad idea.
Having this infec..na, lets go with poison, will inflict damage on the marine, through the armor. The poison can last a good 10 seconds? doing 10 dmg/sec, and can easilly be cured by a watchful commander with medpack spam.
Maybe, the more the poison...the longer it lasts? But then you'll ###### it'll be imminent....hmmmm.
How bout it refreshes the 10 sec timer every time the poison is reintroduced. Sound fair?
Any votes now???
Having this infec..na, lets go with poison, will inflict damage on the marine, through the armor. The poison can last a good 10 seconds? doing 10 dmg/sec, and can easilly be cured by a watchful commander with medpack spam.
Maybe, the more the poison...the longer it lasts? But then you'll ###### it'll be imminent....hmmmm.
How bout it refreshes the 10 sec timer every time the poison is reintroduced. Sound fair?
Any votes now???<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Hmm, thats an interesting fix. Have a bite introduce the poison which does 10 seconds of minimal damage, if a marine is bit again during this time it resets to 10 seconds. Thereby its not imminent, but still provides something useful.
I'd still like to see it as an upgrade which any kharaa can "buy" for their melee attacks. If it acted like any other ability in NS1, there could be stages of say 10 seconds, 15 seconds, and 20 seconds worth of poison. Or the 10 seconds could stay constant, while the amount of poison damage dealt over time could increase slightly.
Were'd you hear that tyranosaurus's were venomous? Sounds like you pulled that one out of your ass. Provide some proof please. Any way it sounds like a good idea but only certain aliens would beable to do it. You should also have the option of turning it off as well on servers (assuming there going to use the conventional valve server technique)
BTW ramboing is not bad. Why should it matter any way as long as they aren't mindlessly rushing and feeding.
And i think making the marine stronger would probably balance the scenario of when the marine is infected would be a good idea <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
Alien poisoning should be another upgrade like celerity etc.
Aliens should have its own "poison chamber".
If alien hits marine with melee strike, (s)he will get poisoned, if alien has the upgrade.
Marine will lose, letsay hypothetically 10 hp every 30 sec, damage will increase if there are more poison chambers.
Marines can heal poison by commander giving "Antidote", which would cost 1-2 res ?
Poison couldnt be healed by medpacks, because every marine would be automatically healed when they are bitten and comm gives med packs.
Poisoning chamber would make nearby alien structure poisonous, and marine would lose hp if he comes too close to it.
Alien poisoning should be another upgrade like celerity etc.
Aliens should have its own "poison chamber".
If alien hits marine with melee strike, (s)he will get poisoned, if alien has the upgrade.
Marine will lose, letsay hypothetically 10 hp every 30 sec, damage will increase if there are more poison chambers.
Marines can heal poison by commander giving "Antidote", which would cost 1-2 res ?
Poison couldnt be healed by medpacks, because every marine would be automatically healed when they are bitten and comm gives med packs.
Poisoning chamber would make nearby alien structure poisonous, and marine would lose hp if he comes too close to it.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I understand your idea and it's not bad ! but, it's a big advantage for alien team...
- I don't like the idea to add an Antidote in commander drop... commander have anough things to do... (KISS, keep it simple and stupid...) drop 2 medpacks for remove poison on a player (example)
- What those chambers gonna do when marines comes near of them ? instantly poisoned or just losing life since they move away ? ...
- Armory can heal poison ?
it can be interesting if the lerk spore gonna be super effective on a poisoned marine.