Gameplay Suggestions+Balance (Aliens, a WIP topic)

[KorJax]

This list might be for mostly Aliens, as thats who I have the most experince with, and because they naturally need more balance being that they are very different from every other FPS out there (while the humans are not).

Alien Structures:

1.  Barracade-  Good concept, bad presentation.  First of all, this structure isnt as good because it also blocks Alien's movements as well as human's.  What comes to mind is someone like how the forcefields in Tribes work, the barricade should allow Aliens to "shift" (or just have the vines "move out of the way") through them at 1/4 of their full speed, while they completely block human players.

Also, the fact that it doesnt do too well at barracading in the first place (unless its in a small area) doesnt help either.  How about a sort of "wall-placing" mechanism (such as, holding down the place button and draging it will make a wall of barracades)?  Or have it so when placing a barracade, you can place up to 3-5 in a row, but if you want pressing the cancel key while a barracade was already placed will cancel any extra barracades.

Also, because they dont really fire anything other than block a path, I dont think that barracades should have to be within a certain area of the Overmind, they should be able to be placed anywhere, like the eggs.  If this is already how it works, then disregard this suggestion.

If you dont have it so you can click+drag (or similar) a wall of barracades, then atleast have it so it doesnt count as the overminds build limit, but there should be a limit of total barracades on map (to prevent spam of barracades).  After all, the barracade is nothing more than a root that has been planted, i dont see why it would need an overmind to operate fully (you should still need an overmind to build them though, just not be part of the build limit).  Such as, how the repeaters work for the Humans.


2.  Dretches-  not deadly enough?  I would think 4-5 bites on a human with just light armor for such a "leathal" bite (according to the manual) is alittle much.  It should take 1-2 bites on a human with no armor, 2-3 with light armor, 3-4 with armor+helmit, and 6-7 with a human with battlesuit (because the battlesuit is actually heavy duty armor).  Right now its also pretty useless against Stage 3, as since everyone either jetpacks or battlsuits, and its impossibly hard to kill guys with battlesuits (i think i counted around 13-15 bites, might of been using the medipack though), especially against a lucifer cannon.  Killing a guy with a dretch is more or less luck at Stage 3.  Luck that the guy your biting is an idiot, and luck that he might be already damaged badly.  I guess its more of a support unit anyways this late in game, but you get my point.

3.  What does the granger's spit do?  Right now i havent found any real good use for it.  If it momentarily paralyzed the enemy (2-3 second normal, 1-2 seconds if Battlesuit), it might be more usefull.  Whats it do?


Well, i think I might have more suggestions later on relating to the gameplay.  I havent played the game to the fullest extent, and I'm running out of time

[Stof]

Granger spit does 1 point of damage more or less ( yes, I got killed by it once ), slows down target and I think it places glue on the ground it hits which will slow down any human walking on it.

Of course, 1 point of damage isn't much but is more than enouth to get a jetpacker to drop to the ground

[raph]

Humans should have an electric fence as in Starship Troopers

[b0rsuk]

Granger spit is mostly good against jetpackers. It knocks them down for a while.
With enough patience and bad human builders, you can damage a turret.
I *think* - but I may be wrong - that spit can be poisonous if you have the booster.

Dretches are good mostly against light/no armor. Don't try to trample an enemy - hit and change direction. Wallwalking is good for this in tight corridors. I rarely turn wallwalking off. Today, I killed 3 lame humans (with no light armor even) during 10 seconds of action.
 Jumping helps you score headshots, but NOT if enemy has you in his crosshairs. This makes you an easy target. Never jump in the straight line in direction of your target, unless he can't see you.
You can attack isolated/distracted battlesuits, but usually the best you can do is drive them out, not kill. Moving battlesuits are hard targets and require ridiculous amount of bites to kill (especially with medikit).

[KoS]

KorJax most of your remarks are very good, but I don't agree with your Dretch remarks:

2.  Dretches-  not deadly enough?  I would think 4-5 bites on a human with just light armor for such a "leathal" bite (according to the manual) is alittle much.  It should take 1-2 bites on a human with no armor, 2-3 with light armor, 3-4 with armor+helmit, and 6-7 with a human with battlesuit (because the battlesuit is actually heavy duty armor).  Right now its also pretty useless against Stage 3, as since everyone either jetpacks or battlsuits, and its impossibly hard to kill guys with battlesuits (i think i counted around 13-15 bites, might of been using the medipack though), especially against a lucifer cannon.  Killing a guy with a dretch is more or less luck at Stage 3.  Luck that the guy your biting is an idiot, and luck that he might be already damaged badly.  I guess its more of a support unit anyways this late in game, but you get my point.

I think Dretches have the value they should in this game. They are big danger at stage1 as a headshot takes 96 (or 94, I'm not sure) damage to a human and naturally at stage3 they could be only support unit, the same as a basic human (without upgrades). A basic human unit could be killed with 1 slash by a bigger alien (or 2 by Dretch) and doesn't have big firepower. It might be only support unit as Dretch for the aliens...

Edited: as I see b0rsuk was faster than me

[b0rsuk]

I forgot one thing. I keep repeating it, but here it goes:

Use Hovel instead of barricades. You can have only one and at stage3, but it's big and really tough.

375 health
20 regeneration (per second; taking damage stops regeneration for 2 seconds)

[KorJax]

Good points on the Dretch.  That was more of a thought than a suggestion, my main point was the barracades, especially the part about them being buildable everywhere and being able to be built in "wall" sections


Hovel's as barracades?  Ive heard that they are strong, but how well do they actually block fire+movement?  Its pretty small.  Is it just that they have huge collision boxes?


Oh, heres an idea.


How about making the hovel more "usefull", buy it acting like a tunnel system?  Such as, having 2 hovels on the map (as a max), a player who enters a hovel has the option to transport to inside hovel, sorta like an instant "teleportation" or tunnel system.  And how about having it so you can attack from the inside (if not already)?  Not that that would be usefull, just an idea.

[b0rsuk]

Hovel's as barracades?  Ive heard that they are strong, but how well do they actually block fire+movement?  Its pretty small.  Is it just that they have huge collision boxes?

Their collision boxes are quite big. I think humans can still jump over it, but this drains their stamina. And if there's an ambush behind hovel, they already have low stamina and can't easily retreat. Hovels placed on top stairs or something are especially hard to jump over. Anyway, most people don't know what it is and just shoot it. This buys you (or OVermind) a lot of time, and warns nearby aliens.

How about making the hovel more "usefull", buy it acting like a tunnel system?

Aliens don't really need it. They already have very high speed, mobility (3 aliens with wallwalking, marauder, dragoon with pounce). And they can build eggs basically everywhere.

One thing about blocking big aliens... Dretches can wallwalk. If the room/corridor has nice plain walls and celing (ATCS, the_glass_window_map, mostly arachnid2 too) using ceilng instead of floor can be a pleasure. If you see a tyrant attacking and you're a dretch, it's often a good idea to set up an ambush. As soon as tyrant starts running, humans will chase it, often carelessly. Let the tyrant escape, jump in their way and eat them.

[apple]

The way I see it, barricades need a substantial cost reduction.

- Barricade - 10 pts
- Acid Tube - 8 pts

I'd rather pay 2 points less for a slightly smaller bounding box but also attacks and slows down enemies! It's rarely worth the 10 points.

Also, some people have considered nerfing dretch on their own server. Reason? Dretch can mow down S1 humans easily. There's really no secret either, just get better with the dretch!