Form Switching
Hyperforms
Join Date: 2012-11-04 Member: 166912Members
Join Date: 2012-11-04 Member: 166912Members
I may make an idiot out of myself in terms of this actually being the case in-game, but I don't think so, otherwise I think I'd see more people switching between life forms. I spent 20 hours playing before I realized you can click and drag Alien upgrades though so meh.
What if you only payed the pres of your highest life form? Say for example, you start as a Skulk. You evolve into an Onos at a cost of 75 pres. You're still alive, and your hive needs healing. You devolve into a Gorge to heal up the hive for free, because you were a more advanced lifeform in the same life, and then re-evolve into an Onos for free(because you already paid that price in the same life) and continue on. Say you switch to Gorge again because you'd rather have 4 Onos and 1 Gorge healing over 5 Onos(I don't know why, but let's just say that's how it is), which is free again. Say you die in that conflict. You died as a Gorge... you lost 75 pres overall for your highest form in that life having been an Onos(which was taken away when you first went Onos). If you started as a Skulk, went Fade for 50 pres, and then decided to go one further, an Onos would cost you 25 pres from a Fade on that same life.
This might encourage people to switch lifeforms in the same life depending on what the needs of the team are, and also encourage people to play a Fade while they wait for enough pres to go Onos(of course if they die as a Fade then they would need another 75 to go Onos on the next life). A distinctive feature of Marines is that every Marine has the ability to repair something with a welder. I've personally wanted to do the same thing as Alien but unless I happen to be a Gorge, I can't do it because the cumulative cost of switching adds up very quickly. It still wouldn't be as effective as Marines repairing stuff, I think Gorges heal things slower anyway, but you'd have to take into account vulnerability in your Gorge form if you devolved(vulnerability in an egg state too for that matter), and the time spent switching forms is another drawback.
One potential problem I see is people constantly going Gorge to throw up clogs and hydras, and then switching out again. Yes, clogs and hydras slowly die if you're not a Gorge, but having 7 people throwing clogs would be kind of nuts even if they're only up for a short while. I say if you evolve out of a Gorge under this system, or devolve into a Skulk, your buildings die instantly. If you die as a Gorge, respawn and go Gorge again, the buildings have the same behavior they do now.
What if you only payed the pres of your highest life form? Say for example, you start as a Skulk. You evolve into an Onos at a cost of 75 pres. You're still alive, and your hive needs healing. You devolve into a Gorge to heal up the hive for free, because you were a more advanced lifeform in the same life, and then re-evolve into an Onos for free(because you already paid that price in the same life) and continue on. Say you switch to Gorge again because you'd rather have 4 Onos and 1 Gorge healing over 5 Onos(I don't know why, but let's just say that's how it is), which is free again. Say you die in that conflict. You died as a Gorge... you lost 75 pres overall for your highest form in that life having been an Onos(which was taken away when you first went Onos). If you started as a Skulk, went Fade for 50 pres, and then decided to go one further, an Onos would cost you 25 pres from a Fade on that same life.
This might encourage people to switch lifeforms in the same life depending on what the needs of the team are, and also encourage people to play a Fade while they wait for enough pres to go Onos(of course if they die as a Fade then they would need another 75 to go Onos on the next life). A distinctive feature of Marines is that every Marine has the ability to repair something with a welder. I've personally wanted to do the same thing as Alien but unless I happen to be a Gorge, I can't do it because the cumulative cost of switching adds up very quickly. It still wouldn't be as effective as Marines repairing stuff, I think Gorges heal things slower anyway, but you'd have to take into account vulnerability in your Gorge form if you devolved(vulnerability in an egg state too for that matter), and the time spent switching forms is another drawback.
One potential problem I see is people constantly going Gorge to throw up clogs and hydras, and then switching out again. Yes, clogs and hydras slowly die if you're not a Gorge, but having 7 people throwing clogs would be kind of nuts even if they're only up for a short while. I say if you evolve out of a Gorge under this system, or devolve into a Skulk, your buildings die instantly. If you die as a Gorge, respawn and go Gorge again, the buildings have the same behavior they do now.
Comments
for example can you remove celerity and replace it with adrenaline?
because i haven't been able to find a way, and it's really annoying... especially when you're a skulk with regen and celerity, then want to take a fade egg - as far as i can tell it forces you to be stuck with regen and celerity as fade which is probably the worst combination. you surely don't have to type 'kill' in console to get your favoured upgrades.
Marines have the advantage of recycling weapons by picking them up from a slain teammate, which means you can potentially get a gun for free if you're in the right place at the right time, or recover your own weapon after dying if you can get back quick enough. Plus, y'know, if you're looking at it from a common sense perspective, would you be insta-recycling the metal used to make the weapon if you switch? That's a little far fetched even from a fictional perspective. At least with organics, even in a fictional setting, it makes more sense to go from one to the other.
I didn't say that this did not come without its drawbacks. One of the issues with Marine gameplay is that Marines in general are a lot slower when it comes to offense, not just because they move slowly but you actually need man power to build and repair every building. Aliens don't have to build at all, so they're more suited to offensive play(which makes the early game as a Marine incredibly frustrating when 7 Aliens don't have to care at all about building anything). If you give Aliens the ability to devolve into a Gorge to help heal something, the Aliens will slow down a bit as a result. I think it might promote more aggressive Marine play too, since catching someone evolving or devolving can potentially be devastating. I mean it already is if you catch someone evolving into an Onos, but with more evolve/devolve phases potentially going on, the Marines have a higher chance of wasting Alien pres by killing eggs... especially with grenade launcher spam.
Also, if I recall the devs were looking into adding the ability to get out of an Exosuit, so while that argument works now, it won't if that makes it in.
Yes they can. Its called picking up a dropped weapon. And they dont even to pay squat, even if they are equipped with LMG and are picking Grenade Launcher. Also weapons persist for so long that a single marine can re-pick his weapon several times after he dies, without having to pay for it again.
<!--quoteo(post=2022122:date=Nov 13 2012, 04:23 PM:name=biggians)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (biggians @ Nov 13 2012, 04:23 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2022122"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Can a Marine decide that a structure needs to be healed and hop out of his exosuit with his welder and weaponry to fix not only the structure, but his suit as well? No.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Hilariously enough, this is something that the devs <i>actually want to be possible,</i> and will implement it in future.
Also, every balance argument that hinges on one side having some advantage that other side doesn't can be summarily dismissed by the word "Asymmetry".