Alien Lifeform Abilities Discussion
Quovatis
Team Inversion Join Date: 2010-01-26 Member: 70321Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
Team Inversion Join Date: 2010-01-26 Member: 70321Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
<div class="IPBDescription">Bugs and/or additions</div>What is everyone's experience with using the alien lifeform abilities?
My first head-scratcher was with the Skulk leap. It seems you cannot leap if you are too close to something (and facing it). I assumed leap would do some damage as it does in NS1, but NS2 won't let you leap against a building, for example. Bug or feature? Is leap purely a movement ability now or does it still do damage?
Gorge: It would be nice if there was some kind of on-screen indication that you are hunkering down (crouch ability). The bitecam animation changes slightly, but it's easy to miss. I expected to see the gorge's front paw in the field of view as that's what the third person animation plays. Even a little icon showing you in a crouched state would help.
Also, I think the icons on the bottom right are mixed up. The icon corresponding to "1" looks like the icon of a Hydra, and "2" that of spit, though the actual abilities are the reverse! Need to swap the icons.
Lerk: Like the gorge, the "roosting" needs some sort of indicator. It's hard to tell if you have attached or not. This can be done with an animation or icon. Maybe it was just hit detection, but it seemed like the primary fire of the spike ability did zero damage to structures. Only the sniper mode seemed to do any damage. Spores need to have a projectile animation like NS1. It's too hard to tell where it's coming from in NS2 as the cloud just appears instantly.
My first head-scratcher was with the Skulk leap. It seems you cannot leap if you are too close to something (and facing it). I assumed leap would do some damage as it does in NS1, but NS2 won't let you leap against a building, for example. Bug or feature? Is leap purely a movement ability now or does it still do damage?
Gorge: It would be nice if there was some kind of on-screen indication that you are hunkering down (crouch ability). The bitecam animation changes slightly, but it's easy to miss. I expected to see the gorge's front paw in the field of view as that's what the third person animation plays. Even a little icon showing you in a crouched state would help.
Also, I think the icons on the bottom right are mixed up. The icon corresponding to "1" looks like the icon of a Hydra, and "2" that of spit, though the actual abilities are the reverse! Need to swap the icons.
Lerk: Like the gorge, the "roosting" needs some sort of indicator. It's hard to tell if you have attached or not. This can be done with an animation or icon. Maybe it was just hit detection, but it seemed like the primary fire of the spike ability did zero damage to structures. Only the sniper mode seemed to do any damage. Spores need to have a projectile animation like NS1. It's too hard to tell where it's coming from in NS2 as the cloud just appears instantly.
Comments
Hold down the spacebar. Weird, but true. Ctrl would be the better choice, honestly.
i had that happening a few times when jumping up on pipes and low ceilings.
I thought and still kind of do think that was just a bug with flight :o The model does not go upside down in third person and it's less like being attatched to the ceiling and more like just flying into the ceiling.
Well, you stay there as long as you hold it down, so I assume that's how it works. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. It should have a brief animation of perching there though.
I think there's a help-tip-thingy that you get as a lerk, telling you that you can hold space to hang on the ceilings.
From what I can tell the spikes (excluding sniper spikes) are actually affected by gravity. I can hit fairly far away objects with the lerk spikes if I am aiming upwards, of course that isn't to say that there is indeed a limit to the range as eventually no matter how far you aim upwards gravity will bring your spikes down eventually. I am sure that they will add visible spikes after they are shot just as they will similarly with bullet impacts.
What if you swoop down from a shaft and want to glide along the ceiling?
Just trying to keep some perspective.
That is all.
In order to minimize double posting and information mess we should try and have em at the right places :)
I couldn't even get it to work at all, not withstanding what Quovatis said.
Weird...
Weird...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->I think energy regens faster than you can spend it on bite because the cost is just so low. This is something that can easily be addressed (assuming it needs to be) once balance tweaks begin.
Gorge: Where is web, bile bomb and web swing? These all had good uses. Allowing you to web up the entrance of your base allowed you a few more seconds for defenders to get the attackers before they could damage the hive. bile bomb was good to be a battle gorge and have a low range attack that could do more damage to structures where you could build on yourself. web swinging allowed a gorge to get off the ground as gorges in ns1 could not jump and can now just way too high for they body type in my opinion. It meant a gorge could get on top of the hive or into vents which were safe places to hide until something needed to be built.
Like others have said above the other current abilities need some work and from a personal perspective I liked how you were the build stuff class which you are not so much now.
lurker: not got much to say here as I was never one to play them much anyway as I felt they were less effective class that the other ones but they should be able to pick up guys (both sides) if they can't now.
other: I want my onos :)