Skulk Parasite overhaul idea
IeptBarakat
The most difficult name to speak ingame. Join Date: 2009-07-10 Member: 68107Members, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow
The most difficult name to speak ingame. Join Date: 2009-07-10 Member: 68107Members, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow
<div class="IPBDescription">From perma to temporary</div>Currently when a marine is parasited, he is parasited permanently until he gets a medpack from the commander or dies. Structures also are permanently parasited until they're recycled or destroyed. As you can't medpack them.
So the idea is to give parasites a 5-15 second lifespan, on players and structures. Also when a parasite is attached to a player or structure, not only does it show the player, but it shows the line of sight of nearby marines/structures, acting like a mobile mini scan so skulks can potentially spot large groups before they attack. Allowing them to have much greater scouting roles.
Also when a marine has a parasite attached, their vision should be similar to the lerk poison bite effect and they should start to cough periodically until the parasite is gone to give indication to nearby teammates about their parasite. Medpacks can get rid of them immediately as usual.
That's about it.
So the idea is to give parasites a 5-15 second lifespan, on players and structures. Also when a parasite is attached to a player or structure, not only does it show the player, but it shows the line of sight of nearby marines/structures, acting like a mobile mini scan so skulks can potentially spot large groups before they attack. Allowing them to have much greater scouting roles.
Also when a marine has a parasite attached, their vision should be similar to the lerk poison bite effect and they should start to cough periodically until the parasite is gone to give indication to nearby teammates about their parasite. Medpacks can get rid of them immediately as usual.
That's about it.
Comments
May sound overcomplicated because the current implementation has no depth whatsoever. And permanent parasites would just be irritating as you might as well kill yourself if you were parasited by a skulk scouting your base.
Welders should remove parasite, I don't see the need for any changes to it.
I can how how frustrating it could be in a pub game though with a noob or uncooperative commander.
As for parasited buildings? I think its fine the way it is, its not like buildings have the ability to get up and move around.
And if a skulk is able to scout out a marine base and parasite valuable buildings, he deserves to relay that information.
I do see though how it could be interesting to hide structures in the un-scouted fog-of-war.
Overall I think a vocal team that relies on good communication doesn't even need to parasite structures, except to know their exact location in the marine base. A good scout will always vocalize what he sees and communicate it with his team. So parasite is fine the way it is.
You basically just said parasite is fine because it's pointless.
The benefit for the new idea of parasite is if a skulk parasited a structure marines were building, it would display the nearby marines for a short time. Giving the scout an actual scouting ability as opposed to just marking someone for death.
And as for the simple drop a medpack or weld a structure approach. Medpacks are going cost t.res, so a skulk could 'site someone, the marines get healed. and repeated scenarios would just be a silly t.res drain and the commander would just say deal with it. It becomes a chore more than simple micromanaging.
To me, it does make sense for parasites to die after a couple minutes if placed on a structure. This is because being a parasite without a living host body, it would simply die.
I don't really believe that the Marine should cough or even have an icon in the bottom corner that he is parasited, as that is part of the idea of a parasite. The host body would not be aware of it. Maybe when the decal system goes in, there could be a unique splat mark on the marine that was parasited (and where), and the other marines would have to tell him.
The only way I believe having the parasite show nearby marines/structures is if it were still exposed to the surface. If this were to be the case, there would be no penetration of the armor, and would eventually die due to a lack of a proper host. The marine would have no other way of knowing if he was parasited other than the splat or bug itself on the armor for another marine to see, and would not take any damage when parasited.
Previous post and Original post Are saying the right things.
Now just let UWE Be bothered to think about it.