Don't quote me exactly but Biomass effectively increases alien HP as your hive biomass level increases. There are 12 stages of biomass total and each hive grants you the ability to research it 3 levels. The abilities now (bile, spores, umbra, leap, ect) are now tied to biomass and you must reach 'X" level of biomass to be bale to get "Y" ability. Abilities are now researched off of structures themselves and not hive types. You can build any structure you want at any time (crag, shift,shade) but obviously will be limited to what you can research due to biomass levels.
Upgrades are still linked to hive type so you must upgrade t he hive and pick the starting SET of upgrades you want. I don't know all the details as far as their changes go but I know regen works in combat now unless the alien is taking damage. (aka you can bite an RT and regen will work)
Silence and cammo were combined for an ability called phantom
aura i believe it's called is a new alien ability on shade hive that allows you to see enemy players though walls (you see little dots) and the dot colors change due to their health. Its a gooood upgrade. (shade is a sick starting hive!)
How strong the upgrades are are also dependent on how many upgrade chambers you have. Each upgrade type (crag, shift, shade) requires 3 chambers to be full power and both upgrades related to that structure are available so you don't need to start seperate research.
You can also change upgrades as well w/o needing to die so you can go cara, back to regen to get health back then back to cara if it suits you.
That's a rough rundown, im sure way more stuff then that changed related to what you asked about...
I appreciate the response.. I've found the Balance Test workshop link you provided.. IMO it does a terrible job summarizing these drastic changes to the alien upgrade path.
How do you increase the biosmass stages? I.e. how do you go from stage 1 to stage 2?
Where are the abilities researched? E.g. if I wanted to research leap, how do I do this?
I understand that personal upgrades, like carapace and what not, are now exactly like NS1. You choose a research path per hive, build structures to unlock all of the abilities of that hive, and then you build more to increase their effectiveness. Makes sense.
How do you increase the biosmass stages? I.e. how do you go from stage 1 to stage 2?
Where are the abilities researched? E.g. if I wanted to research leap, how do I do this?
Biomass is researched at the Hive. Each hive provides 1 biomass level and you can research 2 more on them.
Abilities are researches on Crags, Shades and Shifts. Each one provides a set of abilities to research, e.g. Shift gives you Leap.
Biomass is researched off the hive. Click on the hive and you'll see a button for it in one of the build menus. I forgot to mention before each hive give you +1 biomass level by default so you start with 1.
Abilities are now is researched off the structure. So to research leap you need to build a shift first then click on the shift to upgrade leap in the build menu. Leap is required at biomass 4 i believe. And as I said above structures aren't linked to hive types so you can build a crag, shift and shade all on hive 1 now.
Currently and strikerx3 have covered pretty much everything. But here's a list of Biomass changes-
Biomass: all Hives grant up to 3 Biomass levels, 1 level is already unlocked by the existence of the Hive.
- Grants extra max HP for all lifeforms, exact amount varies per lifeform
- Each level allows research of a specific lifeform ability from a Crag, Shift, or Shade respectively
- Splits the Hive's orange membrane into 2 or 3 sections (like cell division) to indicate Biomass level
Biomass Levels:
Hive 1
1. Gorge Tunnels
2. Bile Bomb
3. Umbra
Hive 2
4. Leap
5. Shadow Step
6. Spores
Hive 3
7. Xenocide
8. Vortex
9. Stomp
Hive 4
10 to 12 - Additional max HP for all lifeforms
Comments
Don't quote me exactly but Biomass effectively increases alien HP as your hive biomass level increases. There are 12 stages of biomass total and each hive grants you the ability to research it 3 levels. The abilities now (bile, spores, umbra, leap, ect) are now tied to biomass and you must reach 'X" level of biomass to be bale to get "Y" ability. Abilities are now researched off of structures themselves and not hive types. You can build any structure you want at any time (crag, shift,shade) but obviously will be limited to what you can research due to biomass levels.
Upgrades are still linked to hive type so you must upgrade t he hive and pick the starting SET of upgrades you want. I don't know all the details as far as their changes go but I know regen works in combat now unless the alien is taking damage. (aka you can bite an RT and regen will work)
Silence and cammo were combined for an ability called phantom
aura i believe it's called is a new alien ability on shade hive that allows you to see enemy players though walls (you see little dots) and the dot colors change due to their health. Its a gooood upgrade. (shade is a sick starting hive!)
How strong the upgrades are are also dependent on how many upgrade chambers you have. Each upgrade type (crag, shift, shade) requires 3 chambers to be full power and both upgrades related to that structure are available so you don't need to start seperate research.
You can also change upgrades as well w/o needing to die so you can go cara, back to regen to get health back then back to cara if it suits you.
That's a rough rundown, im sure way more stuff then that changed related to what you asked about...
How do you increase the biosmass stages? I.e. how do you go from stage 1 to stage 2?
Where are the abilities researched? E.g. if I wanted to research leap, how do I do this?
I understand that personal upgrades, like carapace and what not, are now exactly like NS1. You choose a research path per hive, build structures to unlock all of the abilities of that hive, and then you build more to increase their effectiveness. Makes sense.
Biomass is researched at the Hive. Each hive provides 1 biomass level and you can research 2 more on them.
Abilities are researches on Crags, Shades and Shifts. Each one provides a set of abilities to research, e.g. Shift gives you Leap.
Abilities are now is researched off the structure. So to research leap you need to build a shift first then click on the shift to upgrade leap in the build menu. Leap is required at biomass 4 i believe. And as I said above structures aren't linked to hive types so you can build a crag, shift and shade all on hive 1 now.
Biomass: all Hives grant up to 3 Biomass levels, 1 level is already unlocked by the existence of the Hive.
- Grants extra max HP for all lifeforms, exact amount varies per lifeform
- Each level allows research of a specific lifeform ability from a Crag, Shift, or Shade respectively
- Splits the Hive's orange membrane into 2 or 3 sections (like cell division) to indicate Biomass level
Biomass Levels:
Hive 1
1. Gorge Tunnels
2. Bile Bomb
3. Umbra
Hive 2
4. Leap
5. Shadow Step
6. Spores
Hive 3
7. Xenocide
8. Vortex
9. Stomp
Hive 4
10 to 12 - Additional max HP for all lifeforms
Crag - Bile Bomb, Umbra, Stomp
Shift - Gorge Tunnels, Leap, Xenocide
Shade - Shadow Step, Vortex, Spores