Alien Upgrade Mechanics & Spawning Options
Rathos
Join Date: 2007-12-28 Member: 63283Members
Join Date: 2007-12-28 Member: 63283Members
Marines have armour and weapon upgrade mechanics that persist through death (meaning they get their armour/damage upgrades automatically at no res cost when they spawn). This means that when aliens are mounting an attack on a marine base, the new spawned marines are still a big threat. However, alien chamber upgrades must be chosen, at the cost of additional resources and time upon spawning. This makes it extremely hard to come back from a marine attack as you have no health, no speed, etc.
As a part of the spawning/gestation process, aliens could choose their upgrade load out (at the cost of res each spawn or make each selection a one purchase to unlock option). In addition, this load out screen should have a spawn point selection so that you can choose to spawn at a hive that isn't being nuked by 5 siege cannons, instantly nuking any life-form that appears within 20ft of the hive.
Lastly, siege cannons should also damage marines. Possibly less than it damages aliens, but aliens shouldn't have to deal with insta-gib cannons along with spawn camping hmg/shotty warriors that sit 3mm from your face the second you spawn.
As a part of the spawning/gestation process, aliens could choose their upgrade load out (at the cost of res each spawn or make each selection a one purchase to unlock option). In addition, this load out screen should have a spawn point selection so that you can choose to spawn at a hive that isn't being nuked by 5 siege cannons, instantly nuking any life-form that appears within 20ft of the hive.
Lastly, siege cannons should also damage marines. Possibly less than it damages aliens, but aliens shouldn't have to deal with insta-gib cannons along with spawn camping hmg/shotty warriors that sit 3mm from your face the second you spawn.
Comments
Wouldn't it be nice if a marine or a kharaa could both do this? And pick where they spawn, even how they spawn, provided another spawning player hasn't picked that spawn point already.
Perhaps an upgrade to portaling / spawning would be shockwave or a gas to aid the player who just popped in?
Speaking of shockwaves, why not have those siege cannons be some vicious indirect fire, provided they are firing blind. If a marine is laser targeting (and thus not using his weapons) then perhaps that dangerous indirect siege fire would now be direct(ed) sonic strikes. Just throwing some ideas out there.
As a part of the spawning/gestation process, aliens could choose their upgrade load out (at the cost of res each spawn or make each selection a one purchase to unlock option). In addition, this load out screen should have a spawn point selection so that you can choose to spawn at a hive that isn't being nuked by 5 siege cannons, instantly nuking any life-form that appears within 20ft of the hive.
Lastly, siege cannons should also damage marines. Possibly less than it damages aliens, but aliens shouldn't have to deal with insta-gib cannons along with spawn camping hmg/shotty warriors that sit 3mm from your face the second you spawn.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
this is really hard to say until anyone actually plays the game, its a good idea and should be kept inmind when they start to tweak the gameplay.
as far as i can recall - the siege damaging aliens, i'm pretty sure that hasn't been in the game since version 3.0 onwards and was purely an anti structure weapon. In the versions when it did damage aliens it did also damage marines when friendly fire was enabled. If it does resurface in ns2 then it makes a lot of sense to have it damage both teams - however how will that affect gameplay? will commanders cease to use sieges on public servers because of the large amount of team kills they attribute?
Personally, I've always thought a staging area would be ideal for the Marines, add to the atmosphere and the functionality of their spawn. Get a taste of what a Marine is doing on the Drop Portal Breaching Ship before a match begins, get to see the source for what drops a Command Chair and the initial "beacon" at the start of a map. Hopefully some opportunity to see some beginning 2-3 second long cinematics for the two sides before a match begins to get us pumped up. Hmm, I wonder what a staging area would look like for the Kharaa, something that looks like amoeba and other bacteria floating over a view of the spawn points? <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
<!--quoteo(post=1665603:date=Dec 29 2007, 07:19 AM:name=schkorpio)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(schkorpio @ Dec 29 2007, 07:19 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1665603"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->as far as i can recall - the siege damaging aliens, i'm pretty sure that hasn't been in the game since version 3.0 onwards and was purely an anti structure weapon. In the versions when it did damage aliens it did also damage marines when friendly fire was enabled. If it does resurface in ns2 then it makes a lot of sense to have it damage both teams - however how will that affect gameplay? will commanders cease to use sieges on public servers because of the large amount of team kills they attribute?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Indirect fire, direct fire would help make this a game play feature and make it interesting as a tactic / part of a strategy even in public play. Indirect fire is firing blind, Direct fire a Marine taking the time to aim for the cannons in range. This is one player helping another, the marine with a laser targeter helping the commander who aims the cannons in a general direction just for the area affect and hits fire. Percission strikes vs carpet bombing. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
And I'm not entirely sure what you mean by staging area..
schkorpio: I don't see why the feature shouldn't be in the earlier test-builds. It's been done successfully in other games, well, more of the 'class-choosing' screen you see in DOD:S, TF2, and BF2 (which also has the spawn point selection.)
And speaking of the spawn point selection, unlike battlefield 2, if a player doesn't select a spawn point, that player should just respawn in the default spawnpoint.
Confusion? Let me see here... Try looking at these, it should help clarify:
Indirect Fire: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpet_bombing" target="_blank">Carpet Bombing</a> Aiming in the general vicinity
Direct Fire: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precision-guided_munition" target="_blank">Precision Bombing</a> (Oops, got the spelling wrong) Aiming at a specific target
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->And I'm not entirely sure what you mean by staging area..<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
An example from NS1 would be the Ready Room (F4), that is a type of staging area. One I would hope we get would look something like the inside of a space ship, it has cloning pods the marines step out, into an area that the Commander may have unlocked some equipment to choose from, perhaps just a armory just like a Commander could build, then what looks like the generators and proper equipment for making portals, that the Marine steps through and pops out through a portal.
At the start of the match, this could be the place where and when Marines meet and greet, have a holographic display of the map, nominate their Commander, and viewing portals of space that give the illusion the Marines are approaching the battle sight they will be soon deploying into. For those of short attention span, I don't see such a process taking up more than a few seconds but providing a ton in atmosphere and comraderie.
Starship Troopers: "Do you want to live forever!"
Aliens 2: "How does he sleep through this"
Halo: "We're going to crash!"
And so on, all Drop Ship staging area, also featured in other space themed military sci fiction, but I am cutting it short for brevity's sake.
Hopefully you get the idea.
ready room(pick team)->staging area(pick commander)->in-game(get right into it son!)
(and what would the aliens have in place of a 'deployment', for their 'staging area'?)
and about that Percission thing? it looked more likely to be Percussion (which didn't really make sense, but Percussion Bombing may have been some term i'm unfamiliar with) since i mean, it's only one letter off, and the i/u are right next to each other on the keyboard - so it'd be a common typo.