Make Mature Whips a viable end-game
Stergeary
Join Date: 2010-07-05 Member: 72252Members, Reinforced - Shadow
Join Date: 2010-07-05 Member: 72252Members, Reinforced - Shadow
Since Onoses had their Stomp damage decreased from 300 to 100, their status as the Alien end-game has taken a pretty huge hit. You literally need your entire team to Onos up in a large server if you want a chance at breaking through a turtling Marine team, but nonetheless, massing Onoses and Lerk Bile spam are truly the only viable end-game options for the Aliens at this point, especially with the absence of Xenocide. I propose that Alien T-Res be able to resolve end-game stalemates that occur despite a massive Alien map advantage through changes to the ARC and Mature Whip dynamics.
<b>Improve unit selection control scheme.</b>
A large part of the problem with using Mature Whips offensively is the unwieldy and unresponsive controls. You have to individually order each individual Mature Whip to Unroot, then order them all towards the enemy base, and then order them to Root one-by-one. Not to mention the enemy's base must be completely Cysted up beforehand, since you can only Root on Infestation. And to further make the maneuver unviable, Rooted and Unrooted structures look identical. I propose that Deploy/Undeploy for ARCs and Root/Unroot for Whips should be separate buttons with separate hotkeys. When multiple ARCs/Mature Whips are selected, clicking Deploy/Undeploy or Root/Unroot should perform that action for all selected units, not for only one of them. Additionally, Squads should be allowed for number keys 1 through 0 rather than only 1 through 5, and there should be a key to add a unit to your current selection, not much unlike Shift in Starcraft.
<b>Improve Mature Whip attack AI</b>
Whips and Mature Whips sometimes attack, sometimes don't. Mature Whips sometimes bombard, and sometimes don't. If they do attack or bombard, they do so at irregular intervals. These all make the Whips and Mature Whips quite unreliable.
<b>Increase Mature Whip Bombard damage against structures and ARCs to a viable level.</b>
The Bombard ability feels so lackluster as it currently is, especially since the Marines have ARCs, where even 1 ARC, at the cost of 10 T-Res, can destroy a Hive if left unchecked. Bombard ability should be greatly increased and should also attack ARCs. Currently, Mature Whips will simply whip at nearby ARCs for a mind-blowing 30 damage per hit, while ARCs can return fire at 900 damage per salvo. The Marines can literally march their ARCs right into the Aliens' Mature Whips and deploy without consequence, this shouldn't be the case.
<b>Make ARCs only able to damage one structure per blast.</b>
A major reason why Marines are able to turtle so effectively is because they have ARCs, and it only takes 3 ARCs to obliterate up to 20 Mature Whips. The presence of deployed ARCs also make it impossible to Root your Mature Whips because the Cysts that you have to place all over the enemy's base to begin with will be destroyed before you can Root in the enemy base.
<b>Allow Mature Whips to Root without requiring Infestation from Cysts.</b>
Usually at this point in the game, the Aliens will already have the entire map covered in Cysts. However, having to spread the entire Infestation into the Marine base just to end the game seems excessively more work than the Marines have to put in to ARC down Alien structures. Mature Whips are each worth 22 T-Res, and are a far more time-consuming and resource-consuming investment than each individual ARC. I feel that it is the simple lack of an Alien end-game that can be brought about by Alien T-Res that leads to games that draw on and on against Marines even though Marines clearly should have lost long ago.
<b>Improve unit selection control scheme.</b>
A large part of the problem with using Mature Whips offensively is the unwieldy and unresponsive controls. You have to individually order each individual Mature Whip to Unroot, then order them all towards the enemy base, and then order them to Root one-by-one. Not to mention the enemy's base must be completely Cysted up beforehand, since you can only Root on Infestation. And to further make the maneuver unviable, Rooted and Unrooted structures look identical. I propose that Deploy/Undeploy for ARCs and Root/Unroot for Whips should be separate buttons with separate hotkeys. When multiple ARCs/Mature Whips are selected, clicking Deploy/Undeploy or Root/Unroot should perform that action for all selected units, not for only one of them. Additionally, Squads should be allowed for number keys 1 through 0 rather than only 1 through 5, and there should be a key to add a unit to your current selection, not much unlike Shift in Starcraft.
<b>Improve Mature Whip attack AI</b>
Whips and Mature Whips sometimes attack, sometimes don't. Mature Whips sometimes bombard, and sometimes don't. If they do attack or bombard, they do so at irregular intervals. These all make the Whips and Mature Whips quite unreliable.
<b>Increase Mature Whip Bombard damage against structures and ARCs to a viable level.</b>
The Bombard ability feels so lackluster as it currently is, especially since the Marines have ARCs, where even 1 ARC, at the cost of 10 T-Res, can destroy a Hive if left unchecked. Bombard ability should be greatly increased and should also attack ARCs. Currently, Mature Whips will simply whip at nearby ARCs for a mind-blowing 30 damage per hit, while ARCs can return fire at 900 damage per salvo. The Marines can literally march their ARCs right into the Aliens' Mature Whips and deploy without consequence, this shouldn't be the case.
<b>Make ARCs only able to damage one structure per blast.</b>
A major reason why Marines are able to turtle so effectively is because they have ARCs, and it only takes 3 ARCs to obliterate up to 20 Mature Whips. The presence of deployed ARCs also make it impossible to Root your Mature Whips because the Cysts that you have to place all over the enemy's base to begin with will be destroyed before you can Root in the enemy base.
<b>Allow Mature Whips to Root without requiring Infestation from Cysts.</b>
Usually at this point in the game, the Aliens will already have the entire map covered in Cysts. However, having to spread the entire Infestation into the Marine base just to end the game seems excessively more work than the Marines have to put in to ARC down Alien structures. Mature Whips are each worth 22 T-Res, and are a far more time-consuming and resource-consuming investment than each individual ARC. I feel that it is the simple lack of an Alien end-game that can be brought about by Alien T-Res that leads to games that draw on and on against Marines even though Marines clearly should have lost long ago.
Comments
So then the whip has different priorities:
1. Bombard, while he bombards he can't whack nades back or attack for some time
2. Whack nades back, doesn't attack for some time then
3. And last his primary attack is used
That is a problem if you have only mature whips, because they won't whack nades back, because as soon as the marine is in GL range, bombard also is. Result are lots of dead Mature whips.
So you need non mature at the front, mature in the midzone and near the hive non mature again.
Also clustered mature whips are usless, because they block eachothers bombard.
If you see lots of Arcs comming, just unroot your whips, they won't take damage then. Reroot, deroot, reroot, deroot etc. But if they hit, I agree that they do a very high splash DMG.