How about babblers that attach themselves onto marines and can only be killed by a second marine helping his mate, cutting them off with an axe or welder. Forcing marines to do more teamplay.
As far as the controls of babblers go, if the baitball worked like spit or parasite, I'd be good. I don't want them to simply copy the gorge since I think they would better as autonomous units.
Also, they need to either not require research or have their ai and damage improved to really be an upgrade.
IMO, having gorge tunnels before babblers is kind of ridiculous, in terms of the value of each item.
IronHorseDeveloper, QA Manager, Technical Support & contributorJoin Date: 2010-05-08Member: 71669Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Subnautica Playtester, Subnautica PT Lead, Pistachionauts
edited January 2014
@benson
Swap them with GT in the biomass tree. *
Two birds, one stone.
*Since babblers are on Biomass 1 it basically just means you research gorge to get GT, which everyone does anyway
This means the earliest you could begin placing tunnels is 1:32 into a round.. a whole 30 second nerf.. but at least it forces the khamm to research something to get GTs everywhere on the map?
edit: Also, just start a new thread next time. -_-
I think babblers would be way more fun if they did not follow the gorge. If you want them to come with you then you should bait ball yourself. This would result in the ability to abandon babblers as a distraction.
Ex. Now I am a gorge, on summit for example. Say the marines started sub and hold cross and flight. I could go gorge in comp lab sneek close to the power in cross and drop 1 babbler egg, then run to comp drop 1 babbler egg near the power, and 1 babbler egg near the RT... Now the eggs will hatch and start attacking the near by structure. Within 20 seconds 3 things start blinking red on the marine mini-map and marines start reacting. At this point my gorge is hiding in the vent between comp and flight, and am able to jump out and bile the power in flight while marines are running/phasing everywhere else!
Would it be OP, maybe... but a com would be able to look and see that the RT or whatever is barely taking damage... Mostly it would be annoying for marines as 2 gorges could light up the map with false warnings...
*EDIT* Alternatively imagine if you could send babblers anywhere on the map by selecting a location on the mini map... maybe have them lose health of of infestation (or in powered rooms) so they cant harass Marine start indefinitely...
I always wanted a babbler bomb that the com could drop, kinda like Contaminate, that would spawn like 30 babblers that would eat everyone alive.
piranhas!
YES this. One night on gibs server we spawned like 300 babblers and they ate everyone.
Did anybody bring a flamethrower? No? XD
I think Babblers are so easily countered by cheaply available AOE weapons (2 types of hand grenades, FT, GL) that they can be buffed quite significantly.
What if babbler eggs grow until ready to pop until disturbed(by gorge or marine)... If the gorge is their to heal them up they work as normal, but if he drops them and runs then they wait to burst until someone comes near. So hide one near an RT that's getting attacked by a skulk, when the marine comes in to save it..POP and the marine gets a nice distraction.
I think Babblers are so easily countered by cheaply available AOE weapons (2 types of hand grenades, FT, GL) that they can be buffed quite significantly.
A simple welder does the trick. Babblers will die before they can even get a single hit on you.
I can understand why babblers got nerfed as they were far too useful if used defensively. But they're so useless right now that I never bother with them unless I'm going in for a desperate bile bomb attack. The timer makes em even more useless.
At least they have some limited use, web is flat out pointless.
I've killed perhaps 2 babbler eggs in 1000+ hours of ns2. I was surprised how much damage they can take from a rifle. I wish killing a fully grown babbler egg would pop and send the babblers flying all over the place/ all over my face etc
babblers attacking reins as you bile stuff is great. Babblers are a pest, they act like a pest, they are working as intended. All hail the babbler king.
Babblers are for coordinated pushes where you have a group of lifeforms like an onos a fade a lerk a few skulks and a gorge or 2. Throw those babblers onto your onos or fade and advance with everyone in the group. babbled out higher lifeforms, umbra/spore support, multi Skulk distractions, bile/heals all at the same time melts bases. Even if they only stay attached for 20 seconds, after a proper attack like the one described above, there wont be a base left after 20 seconds. Throwing them onto a solo fade, lerk, onos/gorge combo works too but doesn't shine like the first example.
If your using them for dps purposes you may want to rethink your strategy.
I don't think people are getting this though and are using them just as another tool for attacking a target.
i thought babblers were nerfed with the added research because the euro-scene was doing gorge/skulk combos, effectively giving skulks cara within the first seconds of the game.
You forgot a THIRD and very important component of the Babblers: clearing those damn mines!!! In my opinion a very fast and cost effective ability until you have bile bomb.
I'm not quite sure what you mean... Cheaper than using gorge spit?
I would like to have babblers as biomass 8 upgrade. And make them freaking devastating. Little mad glass cannons.
Webs should therefor be available at 5 or 6 biomass.
Yes... Have it so if you headshot a marine with the bait ball they swarm the head and burrow into her/his brain
just make them banelings. they swarm whatever gets baited, and explode for 40 damage, splash. as well as some component DOT armor.
ooh, and if you stick them to a skulk that xenos, you do bonus damage. and you can stick them to lerks for massively expensive kamikazes. ooh, and they stick to blinking fades, but if you vortex out, you drop the babbler-banes as is. baller. also, can't really think of a mechanic for onos, other than something like reactive armor, but we don't have rockets. babblers also swallow grenades, and more or less contain the AOE of it going off. we could have a lot of fun with this, if we completely ignore balance.
I always wanted a babbler bomb that the com could drop, kinda like Contaminate, that would spawn like 30 babblers that would eat everyone alive.
My framerate just screamed in terror.
Its ok. You wont live long enough to be bothered by low framerates as a marine. As a skulk all the marines will die so no need to worry about the lag. All equals out in the babbler universe.
Babblers vs structures should be like ants at a picnic - they mass together and pick it up, and slowly move it back to your spawning hive while the marines aren't looking.
Comments
youtube.com/watch?v=5-kqFSYR7o8
A Tier 0 upgrade is used for Gorge-Onos tagteam? That makes sense. :-?
Btw what sane comm researches Gorge before soon getting bio3?
Also, they need to either not require research or have their ai and damage improved to really be an upgrade.
IMO, having gorge tunnels before babblers is kind of ridiculous, in terms of the value of each item.
Probobly worse than before now that they need to be researched
Swap them with GT in the biomass tree. *
Two birds, one stone.
*Since babblers are on Biomass 1 it basically just means you research gorge to get GT, which everyone does anyway
This means the earliest you could begin placing tunnels is 1:32 into a round.. a whole 30 second nerf.. but at least it forces the khamm to research something to get GTs everywhere on the map?
edit: Also, just start a new thread next time. -_-
Ex. Now I am a gorge, on summit for example. Say the marines started sub and hold cross and flight. I could go gorge in comp lab sneek close to the power in cross and drop 1 babbler egg, then run to comp drop 1 babbler egg near the power, and 1 babbler egg near the RT... Now the eggs will hatch and start attacking the near by structure. Within 20 seconds 3 things start blinking red on the marine mini-map and marines start reacting. At this point my gorge is hiding in the vent between comp and flight, and am able to jump out and bile the power in flight while marines are running/phasing everywhere else!
Would it be OP, maybe... but a com would be able to look and see that the RT or whatever is barely taking damage... Mostly it would be annoying for marines as 2 gorges could light up the map with false warnings...
*EDIT* Alternatively imagine if you could send babblers anywhere on the map by selecting a location on the mini map... maybe have them lose health of of infestation (or in powered rooms) so they cant harass Marine start indefinitely...
I really really like that..
piranhas!
YES this. One night on gibs server we spawned like 300 babblers and they ate everyone.
Did anybody bring a flamethrower? No? XD
I think Babblers are so easily countered by cheaply available AOE weapons (2 types of hand grenades, FT, GL) that they can be buffed quite significantly.
A simple welder does the trick. Babblers will die before they can even get a single hit on you.
I can understand why babblers got nerfed as they were far too useful if used defensively. But they're so useless right now that I never bother with them unless I'm going in for a desperate bile bomb attack. The timer makes em even more useless.
At least they have some limited use, web is flat out pointless.
Getting killed by Babblers: Fun
Using Babblers: Fun
Checks out okay?
does not compute
If your using them for dps purposes you may want to rethink your strategy.
I don't think people are getting this though and are using them just as another tool for attacking a target.
Yes... Have it so if you headshot a marine with the bait ball they swarm the head and burrow into her/his brain
My framerate just screamed in terror.
that's what they refer to as a multipronged attack.
ooh, and if you stick them to a skulk that xenos, you do bonus damage. and you can stick them to lerks for massively expensive kamikazes. ooh, and they stick to blinking fades, but if you vortex out, you drop the babbler-banes as is. baller. also, can't really think of a mechanic for onos, other than something like reactive armor, but we don't have rockets. babblers also swallow grenades, and more or less contain the AOE of it going off. we could have a lot of fun with this, if we completely ignore balance.