Alien Upgrades - Fundamental assumptions?
Avata
Join Date: 2009-05-25 Member: 67477Members
Join Date: 2009-05-25 Member: 67477Members
<div class="IPBDescription">I think we should challenge the status quo</div>Currently you can only drop 1 chamber type per hive. If this is carried over to NS2 then the Hive commander ability to fine tune the life-form bonuses is only applicable towards the end-game. Is there an alternative way of upgrading that makes the alien commander more useful from begining to end?
#1 - Lets keep the chambers as we know it. However, you can drop all chamber types at any given time. You can also drop 3 of each type to max out the power of that chamber. Instead of getting one chamber type and 3 bonuses per hive, what if you get 3 chamber types and 1 bonus per hive. Example, First hive, first MC. Comm selects one out of "celerity, silence, adrenaline". Then a DC, comm picks one of those 3 options, and finally SC. Then as gorges drop move chambers, the potential effectiveness of the options are increased (to say 3 max). The commander then uses sliders to change how they affect each life-form type. Then as a hive is dropped, the comm can select the 2nd bonus from each chamber type, giving more options for lifeform fine tuning.
#2 - Abolish chambers! No more dropping structures for the aliens! Stupid idea you say? "Probably!" I say. As an alternative, what if the infestation became the upgrades? As the Dynamic Infestation moves to new areas and resource points, it evolves mutations that feed into the DNA of the team. Gorges get to spawn DI and res towers, and as you spawn a res tower, you can "flavor" it. I might flavor a res tower GREEN, which feeds the DI with green DNA, and in turn the hive gets access to green abilities. The next res point can be PURPLE, which feeds the DI with purple abilities and the commander can then give purple upgrades. If you lose a res tower that's giving you... say... speed ability, then the "color" stops feeding into the hive, and once the DI has bled all the color into the hive, the ability goes away. In NS1, if you get knocked down to 1 hive, you lose most of your abilities, but it's possible you have a stockpile of chambers so you can still get most of the bonuses. I think this still needs to be an option, that 3 hives knocked down to 1 hive should lose abilities in one sense, but keep bonuses if you've played the game right. Maybe when a second hive "fills up" with a color type, then both hives lock that color in. This might mean that if you are knocked back to 1 hive at this point, you keep the ability a few minutes longer. Or as a gorge you can "smuggle" abilites from the second hive back to the first, effectively stockpiling abilities.
Number 2 means that structures providing area bonuses are going to have to be done in another way... Maybe that's where hive commander "spell casting" comes in? Or gorges replace that role (Gorges channel chamber like bonuses that the hive provides)
Anyone able to come up with a completely different approach to aliens and upgrades?
#1 - Lets keep the chambers as we know it. However, you can drop all chamber types at any given time. You can also drop 3 of each type to max out the power of that chamber. Instead of getting one chamber type and 3 bonuses per hive, what if you get 3 chamber types and 1 bonus per hive. Example, First hive, first MC. Comm selects one out of "celerity, silence, adrenaline". Then a DC, comm picks one of those 3 options, and finally SC. Then as gorges drop move chambers, the potential effectiveness of the options are increased (to say 3 max). The commander then uses sliders to change how they affect each life-form type. Then as a hive is dropped, the comm can select the 2nd bonus from each chamber type, giving more options for lifeform fine tuning.
#2 - Abolish chambers! No more dropping structures for the aliens! Stupid idea you say? "Probably!" I say. As an alternative, what if the infestation became the upgrades? As the Dynamic Infestation moves to new areas and resource points, it evolves mutations that feed into the DNA of the team. Gorges get to spawn DI and res towers, and as you spawn a res tower, you can "flavor" it. I might flavor a res tower GREEN, which feeds the DI with green DNA, and in turn the hive gets access to green abilities. The next res point can be PURPLE, which feeds the DI with purple abilities and the commander can then give purple upgrades. If you lose a res tower that's giving you... say... speed ability, then the "color" stops feeding into the hive, and once the DI has bled all the color into the hive, the ability goes away. In NS1, if you get knocked down to 1 hive, you lose most of your abilities, but it's possible you have a stockpile of chambers so you can still get most of the bonuses. I think this still needs to be an option, that 3 hives knocked down to 1 hive should lose abilities in one sense, but keep bonuses if you've played the game right. Maybe when a second hive "fills up" with a color type, then both hives lock that color in. This might mean that if you are knocked back to 1 hive at this point, you keep the ability a few minutes longer. Or as a gorge you can "smuggle" abilites from the second hive back to the first, effectively stockpiling abilities.
Number 2 means that structures providing area bonuses are going to have to be done in another way... Maybe that's where hive commander "spell casting" comes in? Or gorges replace that role (Gorges channel chamber like bonuses that the hive provides)
Anyone able to come up with a completely different approach to aliens and upgrades?
Comments
speaking of sensory chamber... why not make it effect the marine in different ways... like when they start crawling into infestation it starts making them go blind or start seeing aliens that aren't there... or maybe just make it seem like the aliens are bigger than what they really are... or smaller... could see someone going guns ablaze'n on what looks like a gorge only turns out to be a fade or onos.... =p
well those are just some fun things, that would more than likly over tax the engine abit.
Whatever happens, I'd definitely like to see chamber buildings still in the game. Some good placement around the map and the marine counters to them are really interesting part of the strategy and have still got a lot more potential for NS2.
way too overpowering if you give the aliens that ability imo. BUTTTT... that's for NS1 tbh. If they give the marines more power on the other hand, this idea could easily be implemented.... but the gameplay would speed up a lot. Might even become a little too intense too quick. Usually the game builds up towards the end, and I like this. I'm sure others do too. If they do all these implementations then I think the game is going to be flooded with too many things.
KEEP NS1 the way it is and improve the graphics and physics. Problem solved. maybe some minor tweaks here and there.
Yes I agree that chambers should stay. I agree you should keep it the same as NS1.
The problem is that Dev's are talking about at least an alien commander now (Which has no place in the NS1 alien concept) and multiple marine commanders (which again makes no sense in the NS1 style)
In our discussions about alien commanders and how that could work, we assume that the whole chamber, resource and upgrade system will be the same, except tweaked for NS2.
This is a fine assumption to make, and we're hashing it out really well in other threads.
This thread is about ignoring what we "know", and coming up with a completely different dynamic so that NS2 can still have and alien comm and multiple marine comms while keeping it's team different and balanced.
Do I think something completely different to NS1 will be in NS2? No. The point is that someone might come up with a solution to a gameplay balance problem by looking at the aliens in a completely different way.
In short... it's called brainstorming, and it's a valid design technique.