Author Topic: New use for hovels (Read 37090 times)

Paradox · « **on:** February 01, 2008, 03:15:54 am »

I reciently took a moment to discuss the hovels with a number of seasoned players, and what we came to is the fact that the hovel is virtually useless for everything but barricades.
This is not news to anyone.

So I was thinking about changing a bit of the hovel to be more useful.

I was thinking about lowering the health to about that of an acid tube or so, and uncapping the limit, so you can build an infinite number of hovels. Hovels are the only free structure aliens ever get, and is of much less use than the repeater.

Hovel building can be difficult at times too, considering that you have to leave the big end of the hovel away from anything, as not to be blocked. This also prevents hovels from being too close together.

What are your ideas on such a change?

If the reaction is positive, ill add it to PGQVM and test it for a while.

Death On Ice · « **Reply #1 on:** February 01, 2008, 03:18:58 am »

No, hovelspam would be lame. Imagine a base walled off with them. And barricades. And tubes. It would be insane, but it would make for a great crash course

mooseberry · « **Reply #2 on:** February 01, 2008, 03:20:27 am »

I don't know, you could spamm with them everywhere.. even though luci could destroy it, it would still hold you up. Also it would be hard to get to OM/eggs in time if aliens have spammed them, as you can't jump over them.

Paradox · « **Reply #3 on:** February 01, 2008, 03:38:32 am »

Perhaps the health of a trapper.

kevlarman · « **Reply #4 on:** February 01, 2008, 03:52:44 am »

i don't see how this is supposed to be a new use.

mooseberry · « **Reply #5 on:** February 01, 2008, 04:02:12 am »

Or make it so that you can run through hovels as a granger, like those little kid structures. Otherwise, hovel loses its original purpose.

==Troy== · « **Reply #6 on:** February 01, 2008, 08:06:35 am »

Nope... the less health you make, the less useful it is, but still can be spammed. Even if the health was 1 hp, player still needs to kill it, then wait for the post-damage to decay (and hovels have really nasty acid in them) and then move on... Id rather prefer to have a normal hovel.

(on the other hand Iv got a nice qvm change where booster adds the basis gas effect to player

)

+ OPTIMUS + · « **Reply #7 on:** February 01, 2008, 12:26:13 pm »

Here I come with my hilarious idea :-D

It would be nice if grangers could use the HOVELS AS TELEPORT gates. In this case maximum 3 (but for simplicity let's say just TWO) could be built, but when entering, the granger would appear IN the other one (exiting still needed, so she is able to hide there).
This could be a nice escape route on small maps, and to make a quick access to outposts trough enemy lines.
Generally alien outposts at S3 near human bases are making the base destruction quicker (what is the flattest part of the game anyway), but for the humans destroying them is slowing down the alien spawning and allows them to quickly raid the OM+her eggs who lacks the defense power what was transported to the outpost.
So it's just an inspiration for grangers to make wider bases and to travel safely when risky situations are happening, not to mention to give some reason for this worthless structure.

This could be a totally new function and I guess it's extremely easy to apply, while it woud not change the balance.

Otherwise I don'T think that if one hovel is useless, then 2 or unlimited would turn them neat :-)

==Troy== · « **Reply #8 on:** February 01, 2008, 12:33:34 pm »

Like it. Id also add that hovel might provide a creep for buildings (but can be built only on creep) because instead of teleporting you could have just spawn from that egg. Interesting. Ill look into implementing it.

ODDity · « **Reply #9 on:** February 02, 2008, 02:23:46 am »

Quote from: + OPTIMUS + on February 01, 2008, 12:26:13 pm

(exiting still needed, so she is able to hide there).

Granger is a female? heh who knew! it is sexeh

I like the teleport idea.. with just two hovels i think it would work well and bring a new element to alien building and forward basing.

Paradox · « **Reply #10 on:** February 02, 2008, 03:08:33 am »

Perhaps more hovels?

But that would require some client side stuff, i believe.

Unless we could make the player's view move around between hovels with the left and right arrow keys, or the scroll wheel.

ODDity · « **Reply #11 on:** February 02, 2008, 04:25:10 am »

What if ALL aliens could use the hovel as a portal to wherever the other one is located? The granger could still hide inside but the others just walk in to it and appear where the other one is... like a nidus canal or whatever its called in starcraft.

Odin · « **Reply #12 on:** February 02, 2008, 05:43:23 am »

Why not just rename the hovel to "advanced barricade"?

==Troy== · « **Reply #13 on:** February 02, 2008, 09:54:13 am »

I am serious to implement the idea, and the way I see it is :

case of only 2 hovels allowed :

Anything <= mara can enter the hovel. When you enter it, you are auto-ejected at the other side.

case of 3 and more hovels :

Anything <= mara can enter the hovel. When you enter it, you stay in it and can scroll the hovels by attack or altfire. You cannot be teleported in full hovels (they will be missed when scrolling).

maxell · « **Reply #14 on:** February 02, 2008, 11:10:05 am »

that's is what i was going to ssay but make it a limit of 2 hovels with a hp of a normal hovel and another thing which isn't reletive the this topic but i was thinking to make the om and rc more powerfull because a normal basilik could kill a rc with 50 hp left

Revan · « **Reply #15 on:** February 02, 2008, 04:26:12 pm »

Quote from: ==Troy== on February 02, 2008, 09:54:13 am

Anything <= mara can enter the hovel. When you enter it, you stay in it and can scroll the hovels by attack or altfire. You cannot be teleported in full hovels (they will be missed when scrolling).

I can see it now!
GET OUT OF THE HOVEL IDIOT!!!
!kick scaredGranger for hovel camping

+ OPTIMUS + · « **Reply #16 on:** February 02, 2008, 06:46:52 pm »

Quote from: Revan on February 02, 2008, 04:26:12 pm

I can see it now!
GET OUT OF THE HOVEL IDIOT!!!
!kick scaredGranger for hovel camping

if you see the hovel, you can destroy the hovel... and after that everything in it, such as the regular hovel works (well i have almost never seen a granger caught in the hovel since the summer two years ago).

cool that this idea moved many people's minds :-)

i wouldn't allow a other classes to enter the "hovelport"... but i can't do programming either :-)
but well, if -as i heard- human bases will be stronger at 1.2, this would give aliens a chance ;-)

==Troy== · « **Reply #17 on:** February 02, 2008, 08:17:00 pm »

about the human bases stronger... I have actually got a nicer implementation of MG turret spin-up than the one on MG. The rate changes from 1/4 to 2x in 2-3 seconds, and if the tracking is lost, spin-down time is 1.5-2.5 seconds.

It will be soon tested on the Amsterdam Unlimited server, plus all of those other crazy ideas

Paradox · « **Reply #18 on:** February 03, 2008, 07:11:03 am »

Sweet idea troy.

Ideas might eventually work their way into the p-g-qvm, with cvars controlling, of course.

jr2 · « **Reply #19 on:** February 04, 2008, 07:31:13 am »

Quote from: ODDity on February 02, 2008, 02:23:46 am

Quote from: + OPTIMUS + on February 01, 2008, 12:26:13 pm
(exiting still needed, so she is able to hide there).

Granger is a female? heh who knew! it is sexeh

I like the teleport idea.. with just two hovels i think it would work well and bring a new element to alien building and forward basing.

No... but here's betting that OPTIMUS is.

Grangers don't look female to me... therefore, I'm gonna guess OPTIMUS is a girl. But this is waaaay offtopic... XD

Circle · « **Reply #20 on:** February 04, 2008, 08:43:34 pm »

Why not create the hovel with the same HP but having them cost something like 4 bp instead of the traditional free. This way you can build as many as you see fit depending on the BP limit. Helps prevent spam and creates priorities.

Maybe change it into a Granger Cannon so you can kill unsuspecting humans.

Paradox · « **Reply #21 on:** February 05, 2008, 04:12:38 am »

LOL!

=======>

AAAAAH!
UNBLEAH!

Noob1 was splattered by Paradox's Granger

Lol

thirdstreettito · « **Reply #22 on:** February 05, 2008, 04:24:26 am »

I like the idea para. You should flow with it.

ODDity · « **Reply #23 on:** February 05, 2008, 04:43:17 am »

yeh i like the idea.

So if you were aliens and you could use the nydus (S3?)Hovel to quickly move to other areas of the map, it would be elegant to use it in the same way as the armoury is used for hummies.. that is (for me anyway) press Q to use and select a Nydus Hovel to appear out of. That way you could implement more than one easier, although i still like the idea of retaining the Hovel but perhaps having a further buildable at s2 or s3 that enables building of an upgraded one to have this feature.

Keep thinking!

maxell · « **Reply #24 on:** February 05, 2008, 10:22:38 am »

i reckon the hovel cannon is a very good idea but it would be better that it repeales any humans coiming near it like:

:hovel with goon on top:-------->-->->>

splatters

but ad also whne a human get near it he gets pushed aways like:

- -
- -

-

( the -- means the way the humans goes)

Revan · « **Reply #25 on:** February 05, 2008, 10:47:05 am »

Cool idea

+ OPTIMUS + · « **Reply #26 on:** February 07, 2008, 07:17:20 pm »

Troy, tell me if my Hovelports are ready :-)

==Troy== · « **Reply #27 on:** February 07, 2008, 08:19:19 pm »

I will work on them on these weekends. Ill drop here a note when they are going to be ready. But in any way, all the features and things are always on the Amsterdam Unlimited

Lava Croft · « **Reply #28 on:** February 08, 2008, 08:04:30 am »

Maybe you should use Hovels as a combination of a barricade and a small house to camp for evos.
Oh wait...

+ OPTIMUS + · « **Reply #29 on:** February 08, 2008, 02:16:01 pm »

Quote from: Lava Croft on February 08, 2008, 08:04:30 am

Maybe you should use Hovels as a combination of a barricade and a small house to camp for evos.
Oh wait...

Lava, as you are an ancient insider, could you please tell us please what was the original purpose of the hovels, as it is totally useless at the present ingame circumstances?
Unless that now it is an absolute perfect tyrant blocker, and an absolute useless small camping house, as the granger can't really check the base's needs at the base while being inside.

News:

Author Topic: New use for hovels (Read 37090 times)

Lava Croft