Babblers usefulness
Kamamura
Join Date: 2013-03-06 Member: 183736Members, Reinforced - Gold
Join Date: 2013-03-06 Member: 183736Members, Reinforced - Gold
The update has been out for some time now, we have moved beyond toying with the new features, and I have yet to see babblers used in any way that would create a tangible impact on the game. Mostly, gorges produce them when bored defending some room, and it seldom serves as more than a distraction.
So please tell me, what is your opinion on babblers?
Extremely useful
Very useful
Somewhat useful
Marginally useful
Useless
Utterly useless
If you use them, can you elaborate on how/when?
Would make a poll, but I don't see a way to do it.
So please tell me, what is your opinion on babblers?
Extremely useful
Very useful
Somewhat useful
Marginally useful
Useless
Utterly useless
If you use them, can you elaborate on how/when?
Would make a poll, but I don't see a way to do it.
Comments
My expirience with babalers so far:
I waste time and energy spawning them,which i could of used to keep moving with my team's skulks and healing them in battle,or clogging up an entrance.
I waste resourses that i could of used to get more hydras out(or use to respawn as gorge again).
90% of the time you cant stick them on a friendly(because nobody would stay still for 1 second and even if they do bablers still get stuck somehow).
In those rare 10% in which i do actually stick them onto somebody it hardly makes ANY difference what so ever(so i wasted 3 res,several secs and energy,just to absorb 2-3 shots i could of healed in one spit.What's the hole point of that seriosly).
Only 2 ways to use them more or less effectively, because in this cases you don't need babblers ai.
1. Throw the bait into the air so that it fell right into you (or you can throw the bait to the wall - it will bounced right at you), after these actions bubblers jump on you. You can put up to 6 babblers at once, far as I know 1 babbler will protect you from 1 bullet. This can help you out. Or you can put them on another alien player to protect him.
2. In some cases they can be used to break down power nod a little faster, but this is only for fun.
I always use the first option when I play as gorge
Medpacks cost 1 res and have huge impact on the game, IMO. Cost per unit is not the only factor - what you get for what you pay is more important. In case of medpack, you get hell of a lot for just 1 res. My question was - how much do you get for your 3 res in case of babblers?
Adjusting the AI to be more efficient after throwing the Bait Ball would help as well. Often Babblers just jump onto the ball, regarding marines right next to it and then walk back to you if they haven't been killed in a bullet hail before.
Adding more air control to the Babbler itself so it can adjust it's course towards a target during a jump a bit would also make them more of something you have to deal with. Currently I can basically walk half a minute around in a bunch of Babblers and have them miss me just due to that walking movement.
Another suggestion I had was to give the Gorge some telepathic control over the Bait Ball, similar to how you command your minions in games like Pikmin and Overlord. I linked to that thread in my sig.
I hesitate buffing babbler offensive stats. Lets avoid PvE. What I really want is tighter control of the babblers so that whatever they do is in direct response to the player's action. Right now they just seem to randomly do stuff and if they manage to actually inflict damage its completely by chance ...no player skill involved.
Link the attack command to spit. Something gets hit by spit, babblers attack it. Simple, easy to use and understand, and relies on player skill.
Have it so the babblers need constant input to continue attacking. In other words, whenever something is hit by spit, for the next ~3 seconds babblers will attack it with relatively high accuracy, then after those 3 seconds they "lose interest" on the target and their accuracy drops...unless "re-stimulated" by another spit hit. It makes it so babbler effectiveness is directly tied to player skill.
Next link babblers attach ability to healspray. Heal teammates and babblers attach to them. If you healspray at the babblers directly, they attach to you. Makes it a hell of a lot easier to armor up allies and to corral them.
Keep bait ball as a way to have them stay/guard a certain area.
imo the problem is that they're too much of a fiddle. the res cost isn't even a problem, it's the fact that it takes so much time to switch to babbler egg, throw babbler egg(s) then grow babbler egg(s) to hatch them in their entirely useless form. then you have a limited time to efficiently find an enemy or ally on which to actually get any use out of the babblers before they get stuck or expire.
- fix the pathing, so they don't get stuck on high/low ground or inside vents
- consider putting 6 babblers into a single egg (1 pres cost). this would hopefully make them more expendable and easier to deploy/replace under pressure. generally you want all of your babblers together; 3 babblers per egg is an arbitrary inconvenience for the gorge player.
constantly doing a babbler head-count is not fun. just put the 'optimal' 6 babblers into a single egg and be done with it.
Plus, I paid pres for them, why should they die (barring being killed or me being killed) just due to a time-out mechanic??
1) Aliens that receive the armor bonus should have a numerical value attached to it. Currently it shows they're attached onto you, but you really don't get a sense that they're doing anything. Maybe when they're attached that alien gets 10% more armor, or slowly heal the attached alien. They're a variety of ways they can be made more useful.
2) Agreed on the timer, would like to know how much time they have left before they die. A small hud indicator that shows how many babblers\hydras\clogs you have active would also be useful.
They are useful for the solo gorge though as if gives the marine more things to manage than he would otherwise, which can get him to slip enough for the skulk to get a kill.
I would say that they're actually pretty useful if used well.
3 PRes for a babbler shield that gives 20 hp per babbler?
I think that's useful. Also, gorge's attacks seem to be about stacking bile bomb and stacking babblers. its good for structures as like a little bonus damage.
And they can block line of sight so they can cover skulks, if skulks hang around babblers.
That said, they don't really have any actual use. Sometimes people use them to kill unattended marine structures while the Gorge is off doing something else, but even then I think they're a waste of time and resources.
Turn them in to tiny suicide bombs so marines would definitely want to kill the babblerswarm before going for the Gorge, or just up their damage and speed. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever even been hit by a babbler as a marine. I just dance around them while wiping out the Gorge.
I like the idea of Babblers latching onto Marines with the bait though. Perhaps even the need of help from a fellow marine to shoot/melee them off or slowly loose HP. Promotes teamwork on the rine side and gives the Babblers another useful utility to bump them immediatly from 2/6 to 5/6.
Awesome idea! I find the glowing "control ball" clumsy and awkward tool, hitting enemy with it is nigh impossible.
What if I want to keep my Babblers for attacking? Never healspray anyone during combat? My team will love it…
Why not make it so that spitting on a friendly alien will make them latch onto it instead? Spitting on the ground below you will make them latch onto you.
I like the idea of Babbler-mines, though:
-Babbler eggs don't hatch on their own after growing. They need to be used by the Gorge with the E key to hatch from the egg. (Alternatively, make spitting at the egg cause Babblers to hatch.)
-If a marine walks past a grown egg, Babblers will hatch and attack the marine, similar to a mine.
-Marines can shoot the egg to make it explode. If he's too close, he will get hit by the explosion which would work like a Bile Bomb hit.
-Eggs that are not fully grown won't cause an explosion upon being shot.
As for the Bait Ball: maybe it could be changed so that the ball itself will create the Babbler egg at the first contact with world geometry. Each shot would cost 1 pres. That way you can shoot it somewhat over obstacles to create Egg Mines there or put them on surfaces that might be too high for you to reach.
MAC EMP
Hallucinations
The enforced delay between building actions also makes it very tedious to spawn them. I believe this was added in a recent patch to stop insta clogwall towers.
Lol, useful as a distraction/armor boost - that's about it.
I would expect it to be about 1/3rd as powerful as a jetpack and three times more useful than a medpack.
The Gorge reliance on pres is why all of his stuff is garbage.