New Skulk Third Hive Ability
Nominous
Baltimore, MD Join Date: 2012-02-18 Member: 146518Members
Baltimore, MD Join Date: 2012-02-18 Member: 146518Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Parasite Upgrade: Infest</div>Hello, everyone. I haven't been able to sleep well lately and an idea came to me late last night involving skulks. Instead of having xenocide force a skulk to trade its life, I propose adding a third hive upgrade to parasite instead. Upon death, the corpses from tagged marines would spawn infested marines, and these xeno-human hybrids are controlled by the khammander. The model would be similar to a normal marine's, except with a broken helmet/armor, a mutated face, a long claw that extends from its right arm, and it would leave bloody footprints. It would also say phrases that are warped versions of the normal marine's, which are triggered by certain events: Ex. "Oh, man.. the hunger...", "Human spotted..." and "Now <i>I'm</i> something..." upon marine detection, as well as "Medpa-" before xenociding.
By default, this unit would use a melee, one-handed attack that does medium puncture damage with a slow delay. Default movement speed may be a normal marine's running (not sprinting) speed. HP/armor values are also subjective, but one late-game marine using an assault rifle should make a bit of effort in order to kill his infested counterpart. The kham might spend his pres to apply alien upgrades to these units as well. The parasite > infest upgrade for skulks may either be researched or automatically unlocked upon third hive. Infested marines may automatically gain xenocide or it may need to be researched. At any rate, xenocide is triggered by the kham.
The main reason for this idea is because when exosuits, miniguns, and railguns enter the game, skulks will undoubtedly become less effective in late-game. The skulk mindset will change to spawning, xenociding, and repeating in order to inflict the most damage possible. I find this a bit repetitive. Why not keep skulks on the battlefield and move xenocide to a separate, disposable unit instead? Skulks would thus gain an easy and effective late-game support role, providing meatshields and explosives to counter the new marine upgrades.
In order to spawn infested marines, skulks would safely parasite marines and either let higher lifeforms do the killing or join them in that process. To avoid spawning too many units, there would be a max limit; perhaps the current amount of marines on the server minus one. Medpacks would still cure normal marines of parasite, but this depends on the comm and whether his pres is worth preventing infested marines.
These units would provide fun for the kham by being able to direct them to move and attack like in traditional RTS games. Plus, who doesn't like the idea of zombies? :P There are a few threads already concerning the implementation of them, but this is my own take on it. NS1 scared the crap out of me when I first played it, and having more survival-horror elements in NS2 would be great. However, this would take quite a bit of artwork, coding, and testing in order to make possible.
By default, this unit would use a melee, one-handed attack that does medium puncture damage with a slow delay. Default movement speed may be a normal marine's running (not sprinting) speed. HP/armor values are also subjective, but one late-game marine using an assault rifle should make a bit of effort in order to kill his infested counterpart. The kham might spend his pres to apply alien upgrades to these units as well. The parasite > infest upgrade for skulks may either be researched or automatically unlocked upon third hive. Infested marines may automatically gain xenocide or it may need to be researched. At any rate, xenocide is triggered by the kham.
The main reason for this idea is because when exosuits, miniguns, and railguns enter the game, skulks will undoubtedly become less effective in late-game. The skulk mindset will change to spawning, xenociding, and repeating in order to inflict the most damage possible. I find this a bit repetitive. Why not keep skulks on the battlefield and move xenocide to a separate, disposable unit instead? Skulks would thus gain an easy and effective late-game support role, providing meatshields and explosives to counter the new marine upgrades.
In order to spawn infested marines, skulks would safely parasite marines and either let higher lifeforms do the killing or join them in that process. To avoid spawning too many units, there would be a max limit; perhaps the current amount of marines on the server minus one. Medpacks would still cure normal marines of parasite, but this depends on the comm and whether his pres is worth preventing infested marines.
These units would provide fun for the kham by being able to direct them to move and attack like in traditional RTS games. Plus, who doesn't like the idea of zombies? :P There are a few threads already concerning the implementation of them, but this is my own take on it. NS1 scared the crap out of me when I first played it, and having more survival-horror elements in NS2 would be great. However, this would take quite a bit of artwork, coding, and testing in order to make possible.
Comments
Once a marine has low enough hp
skulk can jump in and take over the marines body
the marine is basically dead (player can respawn)
skulk is now a walking zombie marine with the ability to use up the remaining ammo on the gun...
can add a delay while skulk is taking over the body - gives time for marine to kill the zombie before it turns
skulk can pop back out at any time with reduced hp (Same hp reduction as remaining zombie health)
Once a marine has low enough hp
skulk can jump in and take over the marines body
the marine is basically dead (player can respawn)
skulk is now a walking zombie marine with the ability to use up the remaining ammo on the gun...
can add a delay while skulk is taking over the body - gives time for marine to kill the zombie before it turns
skulk can pop back out at any time with reduced hp (Same hp reduction as remaining zombie health)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I briefly thought of that somewhere along the line and your ideas are great, but they differ from mine a bit. The skulk certainly has the tools to rip into a marine's body, yet I can't picture it taking control directly. Something like a parasitic worm seems more plausible, but your idea would also be a cool design for those that want to play as zombies. I just think that alien gameplay should differ from the functions and weapons of a marine, which I guess is why my idea involves a kham-controlled unit that uses an alien-like, melee attack. Although, I suppose it would be awesome if you could take control of an exosuit-wearing, dual railgun-toting marine. It would certainly make skulks more effective in end-game. :) Here's hoping either of our ideas or a combination of them make the devs interested in implementing zombie gameplay. :P