Parasite
Wheeee
Join Date: 2003-02-18 Member: 13713Members, Reinforced - Shadow
Join Date: 2003-02-18 Member: 13713Members, Reinforced - Shadow
<div class="IPBDescription">needs to be useful the entire game</div>With the new drifter mechanics giving hive sight to the alien team, parasite has become almost completely worthless past the 3-5 minute mark of games. There needs to be new mechanics introduced to give parasite a use beyond the point where marines get armor 1. This is especially true because parasites are medpackable, which means that they need some extra goodness to offset the fact that skulks have to expose themselves to instant death to use it. Furthermore, I would like to tie these extra mechanics to the upgrade path that the aliens take, in order to make the gameplay a little more thematically cohesive. The stronger the parasites are, the more rewarding it is for skulks to use it, the more alternative there is to skulks rushing headlong into marines suicide style, the more effective smart skulks can be at attacking marine economy without actually biting down structures.
Idea: tie parasite effect to hive type.
E.g.
Crag hive: crag hives give the aliens stronger defensive abilities. Have parasites require 2 medpacks to remove (parasites are tougher to kill). This allows skulks to put more pressure on comm economy through flat out attrition.
Shade hive: Shade hives promote stealth. Parasites maybe induce the 'hallucinate' or 'phantasm' effect periodically. This would allow skulks to even the combat effectiveness gap with crag hive, which is something shade hives sorely need.
Shift hive: Shift hives increase the mobility and adaptability of aliens. Parasited marines slowly lose armor as the parasite adapts to the marine's defensive nanites.
This is seriously something that needs to be thought about because skulks need extra effectiveness later on in the game. Especially with the new armor values, skulk effectiveness drops like a rock because their only option is to engage upgraded marines in face to jaw combat.
Idea: tie parasite effect to hive type.
E.g.
Crag hive: crag hives give the aliens stronger defensive abilities. Have parasites require 2 medpacks to remove (parasites are tougher to kill). This allows skulks to put more pressure on comm economy through flat out attrition.
Shade hive: Shade hives promote stealth. Parasites maybe induce the 'hallucinate' or 'phantasm' effect periodically. This would allow skulks to even the combat effectiveness gap with crag hive, which is something shade hives sorely need.
Shift hive: Shift hives increase the mobility and adaptability of aliens. Parasited marines slowly lose armor as the parasite adapts to the marine's defensive nanites.
This is seriously something that needs to be thought about because skulks need extra effectiveness later on in the game. Especially with the new armor values, skulk effectiveness drops like a rock because their only option is to engage upgraded marines in face to jaw combat.
Comments
I think it's a simple enough mechanic that does exactly what it's supposed to, and it's always very cost effective. I don't see why a marine should have the game become even more impossible just because a skulk can aim a perfectly accurate, range-unlimited attack at them.
Here are some predictions for the future: medpacks become more expensive, hit registration is better so parasite is even more reliable, players get better so the effectiveness of drifter scouting drops (since it's much harder to pull off than parasite).
but these are all things that can be tweaked with the existing numbers (parasite damage, range, medpack effectiveness/cost etc)
you know, without adding mechanics where parasite changes armor and stuff like that...
If they get medpacked, try to reapply parasite but know that they spent meds to mitigate what you did (and when the game is in a better state this will count for something)..
1. Far too few people parasite structures, which give you a ton of strategic info. Knowing that rines have 5 RTs or a PG in a critical location is immensely valuable.
2. Personally, I think the issue is that parasite removal is a medpack rather than armory ability. With a good comm, a marine should never have parasite for more than 10s because you can instantly drop a parasite removing ability anywhere on the map at any time. However, if you move it to the armory, marines have a more interesting choice of whether they run to the nearest armory or chance giving away his position to nearby aliens.
Explosive parasite? (Upon hitting a marine it explodes in a 'large' radius parasiting anyone around them. Only deals damage to person hit not the ones parasited by the explosion).
I choose this solution.
Sounds like a nice upgrade.