The Hive
Moving_Target0
Join Date: 2006-12-21 Member: 59174Members
Join Date: 2006-12-21 Member: 59174Members
<div class="IPBDescription">A new concept on the hideous thing we all know and love.</div>Hello again. First time back in a while...I had to just forum lurk because I was really busy doing reading and such for school. But anyways, here's a new concept I've been toying with that I think you might enjoy.
As you know, there will now he an alien commander, or at least it has been discussed. If this is so, then I had a few ideas for the hives that I think would give them a little something special for NS2. First of all, this is assuming that the life form is inside of the hive whilst commanding the aliens. Second of all, keep in mind that this is a rough draft.
The first idea I had would be for when the hive came under attack. As of now, the hive is static - it sits where it is, doing nothing but making a comforting "squish squish" noise. However, the alien commander should have a way to, in case of emergency, allow the hive to defend itself. I'm not talking about shooting spores/umbra, I'm not talking about shooting spikes. I mean, the hive should, as the bacteria has adapted to the war, be able to produce a special substance that it can spray (for the cost of res, when the commander issues the command) all over everything around it. It would be a corrosive substance that sticks to marines and deals minor damage over time. The more that gets stuck on them, the slower they move. They can still fire, but if hit with enough of this stuff, they can be slowed and harmed. Marines could counter this with say, welders, flamethrowers (if they're in the game), or explosions.
The second idea I had would be a lot of fun. It would involve the DI/Nanogrid war. The concept would be that whenever a new area is taken over by the DI and is held for a period of time, the alien commander can elect to "fortify" the area. This would spend quite a bit of res. What this would do would be to send "nutrients" through the DI, enriching any structures there. This would cause them to become more resistant to explosive/siege attacks, but certainly not immune. Basically, an attack/defense upgrade for everything that's there, excluding life forms. Also, small plants and insects would take residence, cutting at marines (plants) and biting them (bugs), dealing minor damage. In this way also, a room would become more important to guard, and you could develop different rooms individually based on their importance. Don't need a room to be so well-guarded anymore? order the hive to take back the nutrients, which would both heal the hive over time (so it would be good to use while sieged, too) and give you back much-needed res. This would make the area lose its fortifications, as well as the plants and insects, and the larger amount of resources spent and the time used would be lost.
Another concept would be that the alien hives are the carriers of the resources gathered...thus, when you have more hives, each player's maximum amount of res they can hold (or the team's maximum res if the system changes) would raise. This would allow access to the highest life forms only later in the game, and it would make the hives all-important again...If you lose the hives, you lose resources, time, and options! For balancing, the hives might have to become tougher to take down. But I think this would really put the emphasis back on the team and keeping the hives sustained. This is something NS seems to have lost quite a bit of.
That's all for now. I might add more later. Logical comments below; I'm open to suggestions as well.
As you know, there will now he an alien commander, or at least it has been discussed. If this is so, then I had a few ideas for the hives that I think would give them a little something special for NS2. First of all, this is assuming that the life form is inside of the hive whilst commanding the aliens. Second of all, keep in mind that this is a rough draft.
The first idea I had would be for when the hive came under attack. As of now, the hive is static - it sits where it is, doing nothing but making a comforting "squish squish" noise. However, the alien commander should have a way to, in case of emergency, allow the hive to defend itself. I'm not talking about shooting spores/umbra, I'm not talking about shooting spikes. I mean, the hive should, as the bacteria has adapted to the war, be able to produce a special substance that it can spray (for the cost of res, when the commander issues the command) all over everything around it. It would be a corrosive substance that sticks to marines and deals minor damage over time. The more that gets stuck on them, the slower they move. They can still fire, but if hit with enough of this stuff, they can be slowed and harmed. Marines could counter this with say, welders, flamethrowers (if they're in the game), or explosions.
The second idea I had would be a lot of fun. It would involve the DI/Nanogrid war. The concept would be that whenever a new area is taken over by the DI and is held for a period of time, the alien commander can elect to "fortify" the area. This would spend quite a bit of res. What this would do would be to send "nutrients" through the DI, enriching any structures there. This would cause them to become more resistant to explosive/siege attacks, but certainly not immune. Basically, an attack/defense upgrade for everything that's there, excluding life forms. Also, small plants and insects would take residence, cutting at marines (plants) and biting them (bugs), dealing minor damage. In this way also, a room would become more important to guard, and you could develop different rooms individually based on their importance. Don't need a room to be so well-guarded anymore? order the hive to take back the nutrients, which would both heal the hive over time (so it would be good to use while sieged, too) and give you back much-needed res. This would make the area lose its fortifications, as well as the plants and insects, and the larger amount of resources spent and the time used would be lost.
Another concept would be that the alien hives are the carriers of the resources gathered...thus, when you have more hives, each player's maximum amount of res they can hold (or the team's maximum res if the system changes) would raise. This would allow access to the highest life forms only later in the game, and it would make the hives all-important again...If you lose the hives, you lose resources, time, and options! For balancing, the hives might have to become tougher to take down. But I think this would really put the emphasis back on the team and keeping the hives sustained. This is something NS seems to have lost quite a bit of.
That's all for now. I might add more later. Logical comments below; I'm open to suggestions as well.
Comments
Basically I'm saying to include a melee mechanism as a minigame while the player is dealing with all the other aliens. This is better than a simple gas cloud because it improves gameplay instead of just acting as a "me too" balance effect.
I don't really have an opinion for many of the suggestions there.
But I don't -really- like the 'hives storage' idea. Well, you'd need something on the marine side as well.
The 'fortification' idea is an interesting one though.
I don't really have an opinion for many of the suggestions there.
But I don't -really- like the 'hives storage' idea. Well, you'd need something on the marine side as well.
The 'fortification' idea is an interesting one though.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yeah. The hives storage idea was more of something to make the hives more important than they are now - currently, most players don't even care about the hives until they're down to one. They just fade and kill people until they win or lose. This would help prevent the rambos from being, well, rambos...of course there would be some sort of marine counterpart, but as of now I can't think of one...and this is for the hive, not for marines. Thanks for the feedback, though.
On a side note (though I have no idea how this relates to Nintendo), the whole "melee defenses" thing would be known as alien life-forms, aka your teammates. The commander will probably already have enough on his mind as it is; adding melee combat to the list isn't something I think he needs.
I dunno. It was just a concept. I guess I can scratch that one off...
I'm not even sure if those were tentacles..
I'm not even sure if those were tentacles..<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
yeah in the concept art those marines sure look calm and relaxed. based on their body language they arent "on alert", indicating there isnt any real danger nearby.
those tenticles are probably just something to help "give birth" to the glowing things... i doubt they are defensive in any way.
Ok, I just got this idea. What if, instead of the hive miraculously appearing out of the blue, the "glowies" start to combine together, and eventually form the round, glowing central part of the hive? After this, the rest of the hive would start to take place; the trendil-like structures would take hold of the ceiling, the tentacles and outer "shell" would start to grow out and form...etc....