Nerve gas isn't misleading imo, considering almost every "nerve gas" in modern definitions is extremely deadly and poisonous. Nerve gas doesn't just immobilize a person but paralyzes their VITAL FUNCTIONS, leading to a quick death from asphyxiation. It make sense to do damage, and yeah visual/movement impairment would occur IRL, but I'd have to say gameplay wise it'd be best being a DoT with minor visual impairments and no movement impairments. Basically aliens should be able to move in and out of a nerve gas cloud quickly, but it should punish them greatly for stay inside that nerve gased area. There are some cool ideas above, but how will that cloud not affect the marine team also? (FF, remember. Are humans immune to these nerve gases but aliens aren't in the same manner aliens are immune to spore?) Also the radius of the nerve gas will either make it too effective or ineffective for most of those effects (if it blocks alien commander view, it better be big because a small radius is hardly worth anything). The unawareness of situation stuff would probably be fine. Also, the current damage/effect type isn't on structures so I'm really doubting it's just going to be a chamber disabler. It wouldn't be fair to have a bio deterrent have an additional role of disabling defenses, considering aliens have to deal with turret spam head on (unless they're going to add a corruption like skill that can disable buildings, which would be interesting).
The energy-sapping nerve gas grenade discussed earlier seems to be the most consistent with marine gameplay. It should be made to freeze energy regeneration on vanilla Kharra, and slow energy regeneration on Kharra with Adrenaline (or NS2's equivalent). It should also reduce the effectiveness of offensive alien structures. The gas should do very little damage, perhaps in the range of 25 health damage over an 8 second duration.
<b>Why I think this makes sense:</b>
Nerve-gas grenades, if researched, are the scissors to a Kharra team that has chosen to fortify rather than expand. The upgrade would be useful for creating a killbox, and encourages the marine commander to converge on an alien strongpoint from multiple angles, removing the Kharra's ability to flee the gunfire. If the commander and squadmembers do not plan accordingly, Kharra will simply flee the nerve-gassed area, count to 5, and return to engage the marines as normal, nullifying the marine investment. Even if the marines cover every conventional exit, aliens with high situational awareness will be able to escape through vents, hideyholes, etc.
Nerve gas would also be useful in large rooms with well known Lerk sniping points, such as Cargo Storage on Tanith.
<b>Why I think nerve-gas should do some damage:</b>
Nerve-gas grenades should not serve a defensive role in terms of area denial. As nerve gas ignores armor, marines are affected worse by the grenades as many Kharra have health in excess of 100. This is important to keep marines from nerve-gassing themselves when a Fade attacks, and also to keep marines from chasing retreating aliens through the nerve gas. Marines already have two wonderful area denial tools: sentries and proximity mines.
Having to actually shoot aliens in a nerve gas cloud makes it more appealing to research top-tier technology that makes it easier to engage inside nerve-gassed rooms, such as gas-immune exo and in certain situations jetpacks.
<i>As for the OP: UWE does this for a living. We do... something else. Our suggestions could help them avoid "in the bottle" thinking, but I hardly think they'll ruin the feel of NS with an alien-like weapon.</i>
<!--quoteo(post=1774261:date=Jun 10 2010, 11:18 AM:name=Donner & Blitzen)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Donner & Blitzen @ Jun 10 2010, 11:18 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1774261"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Aren't all aliens linked by some kind of hive mind? Perhaps nerve gas could disrupt this connection between all alien players and structures in the area where gas is deployed.
For example, you could flood a hive room with nerve gas, then start shooting the hive down without the aliens getting any kind of verbal or visual warning from the game.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Sounds good.
Think in terms of Starcraft, Dark Templar 1 hitting Drones/SCVs at the Mineral line. The Commander can't always be watching his base, he has to help his forces as well.
Bad analagy I know. The rule really is, the Commander can't be everywhere at once, so he may miss some things. Nerve Gas just increases those odds a little bit.
Comments
Also, the current damage/effect type isn't on structures so I'm really doubting it's just going to be a chamber disabler. It wouldn't be fair to have a bio deterrent have an additional role of disabling defenses, considering aliens have to deal with turret spam head on (unless they're going to add a corruption like skill that can disable buildings, which would be interesting).
The energy-sapping nerve gas grenade discussed earlier seems to be the most consistent with marine gameplay. It should be made to freeze energy regeneration on vanilla Kharra, and slow energy regeneration on Kharra with Adrenaline (or NS2's equivalent). It should also reduce the effectiveness of offensive alien structures. The gas should do very little damage, perhaps in the range of 25 health damage over an 8 second duration.
<b>Why I think this makes sense:</b>
Nerve-gas grenades, if researched, are the scissors to a Kharra team that has chosen to fortify rather than expand. The upgrade would be useful for creating a killbox, and encourages the marine commander to converge on an alien strongpoint from multiple angles, removing the Kharra's ability to flee the gunfire. If the commander and squadmembers do not plan accordingly, Kharra will simply flee the nerve-gassed area, count to 5, and return to engage the marines as normal, nullifying the marine investment. Even if the marines cover every conventional exit, aliens with high situational awareness will be able to escape through vents, hideyholes, etc.
Nerve gas would also be useful in large rooms with well known Lerk sniping points, such as Cargo Storage on Tanith.
<b>Why I think nerve-gas should do some damage:</b>
Nerve-gas grenades should not serve a defensive role in terms of area denial. As nerve gas ignores armor, marines are affected worse by the grenades as many Kharra have health in excess of 100. This is important to keep marines from nerve-gassing themselves when a Fade attacks, and also to keep marines from chasing retreating aliens through the nerve gas. Marines already have two wonderful area denial tools: sentries and proximity mines.
Having to actually shoot aliens in a nerve gas cloud makes it more appealing to research top-tier technology that makes it easier to engage inside nerve-gassed rooms, such as gas-immune exo and in certain situations jetpacks.
<i>As for the OP: UWE does this for a living. We do... something else. Our suggestions could help them avoid "in the bottle" thinking, but I hardly think they'll ruin the feel of NS with an alien-like weapon.</i>
For example, you could flood a hive room with nerve gas, then start shooting the hive down without the aliens getting any kind of verbal or visual warning from the game.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Sounds good.
Bad analagy I know. The rule really is, the Commander can't be everywhere at once, so he may miss some things. Nerve Gas just increases those odds a little bit.