Hydra Tweaking and structure heal question
radforChrist
USA Join Date: 2002-11-04 Member: 6871Members, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Subnautica Playtester
USA Join Date: 2002-11-04 Member: 6871Members, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Subnautica Playtester
<div class="IPBDescription">Request a slight buff to assist aliens</div>We've nerfed Hydras pretty well for them to actually surprise me when I get a kill with them. They're simply a deterrent or a delay until backup arrives.
Exactly what I'd expect them to be. but they're terribly weak at it. And a semi decent marine cleans them out in three clips or less.
could we up the individual gorge use to five? Keep all the rest the same, but give gorges a couple more each to play? I think it would make them a little more formidable, but still weak.
Also, is there an innate healing for structures, mainly hives? I know in NS1 all alien structures healed slowly, but I don't think cysts or hives do in NS2. Do any do this? Could they? Please?
Thanks!
Exactly what I'd expect them to be. but they're terribly weak at it. And a semi decent marine cleans them out in three clips or less.
could we up the individual gorge use to five? Keep all the rest the same, but give gorges a couple more each to play? I think it would make them a little more formidable, but still weak.
Also, is there an innate healing for structures, mainly hives? I know in NS1 all alien structures healed slowly, but I don't think cysts or hives do in NS2. Do any do this? Could they? Please?
Thanks!
Comments
Upping the hydra limit to 5 isn't a good idea imo; they're pretty nice as they are right now imo, in cost, function, and limit per gorge.
Upping the hydra limit to 5 isn't a good idea imo; they're pretty nice as they are right now imo, in cost, function, and limit per gorge.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
How isn't it a good idea? It would make gorging much more rewarding and useful. Why is it people are determined to take the hydra away from the gorge? Hard limits should be the exception, not the rule.
Partly because they're easier to keep alive, and partly because it isnt as resource-consuming for the server.
As they were free for the gorge. The best tactic was to run past them and kill the gorge. Now that they cost resources, I think they could be buffed again, so you can't just run past them. Now you would have to kill them and than get the gorge. A single gorge with hydras should be capable of holding of 1 marine by healing his hydras faster than the one marine can damage them. But 2 marines should have no problem in getting them down one after another.
In addition it would be nice if the gorge get his resources back when eating his hydras.
Emptying clips into hydras and then going back to resupply isn't exactly the most fun to play the game, and it will promote even more gorging around the map (mostly on pubs I suppose)...
But we can try it I guess.
That would seem more in tune with their three headed design, rather than one dart every two seconds(?), it could be three darts over two seconds, each dart doing 40% of the current dart damage. Then there could be a one or two second 'reload' pause before the next burst.
And there should be +2 or +3 hydras per hive. That let's the gorge keep up a little with expanding map control, or focus hydras in one area to defend against a strong marine push.
However, you have 1 gorge in a hallway, 3 marines are rushing you, your 3 pathetic oc towers you wasted money on get mowed down, and you eat a grenade for breakfast.
1) If the gorge had healing structure, that would help, but he cant drop them, and com has to decide whether he can spend the money for it.
2) Towers are too weak, or are limited in number, so marines can jump over the towers, and run after you. If you had another wall of oc towers to back you up, that would help.
3) Due to limit of 3 towers, you cant protect alien evolution chambers because you're too busy ahead of it.
So you had 9 hydras which mostly missed, doing tiny damage, all getting blown up by a grenade and utterly useless against upgraded marines.
They used to have no limits on hydras - became a spam problem
They used to increase number of hydras per hive - still a spam probelm
UWE is very against any kind of Player v AI encounters, both from a spam and gameplay perspective; they prefer to keep things PvP. Personally, I find strong static defenses enjoyable (so long as spam isn't a problem), so I'm all for buffing Hydras and increasing the cap to 5, after all, thats WHY gls and bilebomb are in the game, to kill structures.
Hell, look at sentry guns. They have been so useless for so long, and just recently they have decided to cap them at 1 sentry battery per room and make them a bit more powerful, even though bilebomb would be able to wipe out an entire base full of sentries (even stronger ones) in a matter of seconds
Point is - Anything that brings more AI into the game is going to remain having an almost negligable effect on a round, and be easily overcome, even without the specialized equipment availble.
See, you say that, and UWE says that... but Arcs? Not direct PvE...but a complete game changer, especially right now.
In ns1 you could spam ocs as much as you please, and in my opinion they were far better than hydras. There wasn't a spam problem because it was just seen as wasted res by the marine team. The marines would just counter by ignoring the ocs, or shooting them down quickly as a team. It's exactly the same for ns2 is it not? Hydra spam isn't exactly beneficial to the alien team. It's just resources wasted on a fragile, underpowered, static structure, that can't even be healed fast enough to save even if you're there as gorge babysitting it (and there's very few locations where you can heal a hydra getting shot without putting yourself in harms way and likely dying in the process - you pretty much have to have skulks with you to draw away the fire from you).
So yeah, I'm all for any buffs on hydras, beit on the amount you can drop, or the hp and damage hydras do, or increase gorge heal speed (or energy recovery).
<ul><li>increase their hp/armor by 30% to scale better lategame </li><li>increase their cost by 1 or 2 pres, so they are not OP or too many early game (2 per gorge at start of game if 2 pres more.</li><li>increase the hard cap to 5 so that the gorge has more to do mid to late game and a proper res sink for the class.</li></ul>
increase their hp/armor by 30% to scale better lategame
increase their cost by 1 or 2 pres, so they are not OP or too many early game (2 per gorge at start of game if 2 pres more.
increase the hard cap to 5 so that the gorge has more to do mid to late game and a proper res sink for the class.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yes please
Alternatively, mature hydras should receive a considerable HP/armour boost at least. (That way new built ones remain fragile and easier to deal with, early on in the game)
That way the base p.res cost can stay the same, but the cap should still go up.