Phantom and scan
Al_Bobo
Join Date: 2013-03-14 Member: 183957Members
Join Date: 2013-03-14 Member: 183957Members
I enjoy playing a phantom skulk, but if the marine comm is worth his salt, he will scan the rooms where marines are going, making phantom useless. This makes a shade hive as the first hive a poor option.
Phantom should work so that when the room is scanned, a skulk has 1 second to stop running or the scan will locate him. If he's located with scan he will also be visible for the duration of that scan. If the skulk sneaks while under scan, he will not be scanned but he becomes fully visible. When sneaking under scan, the scan 'pressure' builds up against phantom and after 5 seconds of continuous sneaking the skulk will be located by scan. It would work similarly to exo's gun heating, which must be waited to cool down (there should be some visual cue). Whenever the skulk stays in place while the room is scanned, he will be cloaked unless he was already fully spotted by scan.
The observatories would work the same way as always.
Phantom should work so that when the room is scanned, a skulk has 1 second to stop running or the scan will locate him. If he's located with scan he will also be visible for the duration of that scan. If the skulk sneaks while under scan, he will not be scanned but he becomes fully visible. When sneaking under scan, the scan 'pressure' builds up against phantom and after 5 seconds of continuous sneaking the skulk will be located by scan. It would work similarly to exo's gun heating, which must be waited to cool down (there should be some visual cue). Whenever the skulk stays in place while the room is scanned, he will be cloaked unless he was already fully spotted by scan.
The observatories would work the same way as always.
Comments
For me, I am happy with it the way it is now.
99% camoflauge is not 100% thus making the scan game pretty much useless
A lerk with celerity + aura is deadly.
Ever heard of the naturalistic fallacy? It basically means "don't deduce what should be from what is" (yeah, that's bad english, I know). Just because everybody does it doesn't mean it's right. I always go crag last.
The mechanic that made NS1 dynamic for aliens was the use of upgrade chambers on the field without infestation. So yes, Hive 1 Shades would be viable... in another world.
Shade is actually very powerful (more powerful than crag, imo). People just don't realise it/don't know how to use it (in pubs).
tl;dr, shade hive in pubs works well if the aliens play it correctly.
edit: need more coffee, I had like 4 typos in there.
Well, there is more to Shade Hives than Phantom. I tend to use Aura more often, even as a Skulk, because it helps with effective ambushing as well as showing which targets to prioritise. In fact, the stealth is probably the worst part of Phantom, the sound silence is far more useful. Stealth is mostly useful for hiding in an obvious place and hoping the Marines aren't asute enough to be looking for the stealth shimmer.
And there are the Drifter abilities to consider as well (I forget the name of the one that spawns controllable illusions).
It's not shift or crag.
The wording is important there, and I'll explain why.
Lets assume you've gone shade first and the game's been fairly even thus far. You now have two options for your next hive - crag or shift.
Problem is, whichever of these two you pick you are going to have one of your lifeform's abilities severely stunted. No cara gives you very vulnerable fades and onos. No adrenaline means all but the best fades will struggle in combat, gorges cant go for very long, and lerks can't support as strongly.
"but d00d with shade you should f*** them up so badly you don't even need to get any more hives, it's l2play issue"
- probably what I'd say to someone explaining what I've just explained.
And it's true.
Shade hive is awesome early game but massively stunts your lategame ability. I find in pubs, very often people almost seem unwilling to group up and finish the game with a base rush because it's considered unfair/cheese and ALSO because... wait for it... People enjoy long, exciting games. Smashing a team in pub with shade1st is easily doable, but it's not actually that fun, because you know the other team could well be full of rookies who have no idea how to counter invisible aliens that know their every movement.
But I digress.
Additional ideasplurge (dont judge this overall post based on the following);
If I could make any change to shade, I'd do the following-
- Scans don't reveal slow-moving, phantom aliens.
- Marine flashlights will make alien eyes glow brightly (like shining a light into the eyes of any nighttime animal). Would have to be limited to a certain range/ there are various factors to balance it but you get the idea.
It'd give marines some ability to detect tricksy aliens without Tres expenditure, and would make sense by the laws of physics (if your retinas (the bits that reflect/absorb light) are invisible, you would be blind!).
I agree with that part; but because I miss Mucous membrane, not cara.
Yesterday I had the fortune of playing several games with a shade commander, and the other team was just helpless. Even when they started spamming scans, I just switched to aura and continued the slaughter. (so easy to pick off the injured)
It isn't even so much the cloak that makes it useful, but the completely silent running and biting. Every time shade is first I find myself getting 2-3 bites on marines before they even realize I'm there. Plus it allows you to bite down extractors while listening for Marine footsteps.
I've lost count of how many times I've been silently biting an extractor, heard footsteps in time to jump up to the ceiling and cloak, then drop down and get the kill when they start repairing.
I also disagree with Onos being weak without shells... I die easier when I don't have celerity or phantom... celerity makes you stupidly fast and able to outrun all but jetpackers, and phantom allows you to move around without sounding like an avalanche. (which in turn lets you get the drop on unsuspecting marines)
After a while I started to learn how to effectivily use Aura and Phantom and learned to appreciate it. Still not as 1st hive though, as play Gorge a lot. But does it have to be a 100% viable 1st hive choice? I like the idea of it beeing more a supportive, supplementary hive.