Metastases
Shrike3O
Join Date: 2002-11-03 Member: 6678Members, Constellation
Join Date: 2002-11-03 Member: 6678Members, Constellation
<div class="IPBDescription">Bringing back gorge/comm synergy, and ninjagorging</div>The limitations of the top-down Khamm interface greatly limits where the Kharaa can build and how they expand. With the removal of cysts from Gorges, subtle or sneaky expansion of infestation (through vents, under the floor in Tram, hidden behind ceiling-mounted raceways) has disappeared, and while the marines still need to worry about skulks coming out of the walls, they don't have any concerns about Kharaa infrastructure being hidden in any of those locations. While the marine Comm can't build on ceilings or walls either, he mostly doesn't need to, and plonking a phase gate down in a tall vent or hiding observatories in strange places is at most limited by having to build a power node, too. While I'd like to see a return of gorge cysts, I don't anticipate that'll happen. With any luck, Metastases could return that functionality without disrupting the pres/tres economy.
THE SUGGESTION:
Allow gorges to place a structure called a Metastasis. This structure is essentially inert from the gorge's point of view, but a Khammander can select a Metastasis and choose to grow it into a cyst or structure at normal tres cost. There is no cost savings or other economic advantage to this method of construction; the primary advantage to a structure grown from a Metastasis is that it can be placed on a ceiling, in a vent, or all of the other oddball places that gorges can get into and Khammanders aren't able to put structures on due to the limitation of their interface. Gorges would receive an indicator prior to placement as to whether or not the Metastasis is in cyst range, and would receive an indicator as to whether or not the Metastasis is being placed in a location with enough room to allow it to evolve into a shift/shade/crag.
ANTICIPATED BENEFITS:
This would increase interaction between gorges and khamms, expand the role of the gorge in infrastructure construction without adding the development of new structures that would require balancing, and would increase the variety of gameplay available on any given map by getting away from the "string of cysts on the floor" and "structures hidden in corners" building techniques that we're limited to now.
META-WHAT?:
A Metastasis (plural: metastases, slang: a met, or mets) is a cancerous growth located away from the primary cancerous location, an example being lung cancer that has metastasized to the brain. The name feels consistent with the Kharaa "cyst" scheme, and is less revolting than Teratoma.
THE SUGGESTION:
Allow gorges to place a structure called a Metastasis. This structure is essentially inert from the gorge's point of view, but a Khammander can select a Metastasis and choose to grow it into a cyst or structure at normal tres cost. There is no cost savings or other economic advantage to this method of construction; the primary advantage to a structure grown from a Metastasis is that it can be placed on a ceiling, in a vent, or all of the other oddball places that gorges can get into and Khammanders aren't able to put structures on due to the limitation of their interface. Gorges would receive an indicator prior to placement as to whether or not the Metastasis is in cyst range, and would receive an indicator as to whether or not the Metastasis is being placed in a location with enough room to allow it to evolve into a shift/shade/crag.
ANTICIPATED BENEFITS:
This would increase interaction between gorges and khamms, expand the role of the gorge in infrastructure construction without adding the development of new structures that would require balancing, and would increase the variety of gameplay available on any given map by getting away from the "string of cysts on the floor" and "structures hidden in corners" building techniques that we're limited to now.
META-WHAT?:
A Metastasis (plural: metastases, slang: a met, or mets) is a cancerous growth located away from the primary cancerous location, an example being lung cancer that has metastasized to the brain. The name feels consistent with the Kharaa "cyst" scheme, and is less revolting than Teratoma.
Comments
The specific advantage a metastasis-grown structure has over a Khamm placed structure is that it can be located in places the Khamm is incapable of placing it. The Khamm UI has serious limitations: Cyst chains cannot be run down most vents. Crags and whips can't be placed on walls or ceilings. Shades cannot be tucked up on top of a few pipes or tucked into containers. What this leads to is a pretty static understanding of where things can and cannot be built, and uninteresting looking rooms where a theoretically "organic" enemy's structures look like a hard point in a tower defense game. In previous builds, Gorges could place cysts on any surface they could get into range of, and this led to some interesting strategies and tactics where gorges could give the Khamm access to an area he couldn't get to otherwise, either due to level geometry or marine action. This variety was lost when cysts got removed from the gorge; Mets would bring back some of this flexibility and variety without forcing UWE to develop and balance new types of structures (besides Metastases) for the gorge.
The gorge placing a series of Mets would be able to say "cyst-sized, cyst-sized, cyst-sized... okay, this one needs to have enough room to be a tower, so I switch to tower-sized met placement." While a tower-sized met might not be any larger, the placement requirements (which determine things like whether or not a hydra shows as placeable or not placeable) for that same Metastasis will be large enough that the Khamm could upgrade that Met to a crag/shade/shift without worrying that it won't fit (or the game designers not having to worry that it'll "fit" by clipping into the walls).
if shades could actually be built on the ceilings it would be really hard to find them without a scan
so +1
Dropping cyst chains when gorges could still do that was never really boring to me. I'd rather Gorges be able to place cysts directly (rather than cyst mets) but I don't see that happening in the current design philosophy. The main drive I had behind thinking Metastases would be a good idea was that it didn't seem particularly difficult to code, compared to major alterations to the Khamm UI. I'd love to see Khamms able to place structures much more freely than they can, but I'm not sure it's an easy thing to make happen.