A lifeform with Devour
Corpsey
Join Date: 2011-07-02 Member: 107538Members
Join Date: 2011-07-02 Member: 107538Members
<div class="IPBDescription">With less digestion time than NS1 Onos</div>So I have been thinking for a while how to implement a unit for aliens with devour.. or some sort of trap that has decent range and remains biological. The biggest restraint is the fact that the kharaa don't have any real means of making a pressurized canister look "organic" without looking like you can shoot it once and it will fail. Also, with the onos devour.. because you can swallow something whole - a lot of the complaint is that it takes a player out of a game for too long. Other traps and teeth and claws units have no range.. which in NS isn't that bad because of the narrow corridors but I digress.
Alas, the.. uh.. well it's unnamed, evolved from drifter it resembles a slug-like thing, mixed with another idea from another thread called a "cerberi" as well as a chameleon (only for the tongue anatomy).
<img src="http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/7021/randomorganicdevourer.gif" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<!--sizeo:1--><span style="font-size:8pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->Yeah it's kinda weird, never said it was pretty :)<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
The basic idea is that I was looking at Vladimir Van Vodka's "Cerberi" <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=113779&mode=threaded" target="_blank">thread</a> and while it's cool.. it's kind of hard to imagine that after you kill it the hole just closes back up and becomes metal again (or rubble texture, whatever.. solid ground anyways). ALSO because it has teeth.. unlike onos devour after something is devoured it can be given an "inital damage" upon entrance to the mouth allowing the devour time to be shortened.
It has no eyes, the slits are actually its nostrils. The khammander is it's eyes, and it's a NPC unit, controlled by the kham. After devouring it excretes a trail of the victims blood on the ground through its 'foot'. The mouth innards of the creature acts like a stomach.
The problem with <a href="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7176/7009288931_04bdbca4d5.jpg" target="_blank">something larger than Onos</a> in the game is that the hallways are just not big enough for either.. a toad-like creature, or a giant lizard. and also the animations on something larger than onos would be harder to implement because half of the creature could technically lag behind an entirely separate hallway and still being shot at. Turning around with a mouse would just look insane. Also, anything with more range starts looking less organic, completely OP to the point where it's like why build a hive when you can just build this one end-all unit? :P
Anyways, just an idea.... I guess I miss that feeling in NS of being rescued from being actually consumed. I'm not so attached to the idea that I would be hurt if it were shot down, this is merely for discussion. I had in mind that it would be slow moving and generally used cloaked, having a rather expensive cost with low armor but high HP. The tongue itself would be mostly armoured to avoid marines axing it off (which would be awesome if there were actually a "reel-in" period that allowed that to happen). To shorten the reel-in period, have the kham able to set it to not attack.. and wait for marines to get really close before putting in the attack command. If it's toggled so that it can attack on its own free will, it will just try to eat things at its maximum range. Lastly, make them able to be hallucinations.
Possible Upgrades: Paralytic Tongue. Adds armor piercing paralytic spikes to the tongue.
Alas, the.. uh.. well it's unnamed, evolved from drifter it resembles a slug-like thing, mixed with another idea from another thread called a "cerberi" as well as a chameleon (only for the tongue anatomy).
<img src="http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/7021/randomorganicdevourer.gif" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<!--sizeo:1--><span style="font-size:8pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->Yeah it's kinda weird, never said it was pretty :)<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
The basic idea is that I was looking at Vladimir Van Vodka's "Cerberi" <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=113779&mode=threaded" target="_blank">thread</a> and while it's cool.. it's kind of hard to imagine that after you kill it the hole just closes back up and becomes metal again (or rubble texture, whatever.. solid ground anyways). ALSO because it has teeth.. unlike onos devour after something is devoured it can be given an "inital damage" upon entrance to the mouth allowing the devour time to be shortened.
It has no eyes, the slits are actually its nostrils. The khammander is it's eyes, and it's a NPC unit, controlled by the kham. After devouring it excretes a trail of the victims blood on the ground through its 'foot'. The mouth innards of the creature acts like a stomach.
The problem with <a href="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7176/7009288931_04bdbca4d5.jpg" target="_blank">something larger than Onos</a> in the game is that the hallways are just not big enough for either.. a toad-like creature, or a giant lizard. and also the animations on something larger than onos would be harder to implement because half of the creature could technically lag behind an entirely separate hallway and still being shot at. Turning around with a mouse would just look insane. Also, anything with more range starts looking less organic, completely OP to the point where it's like why build a hive when you can just build this one end-all unit? :P
Anyways, just an idea.... I guess I miss that feeling in NS of being rescued from being actually consumed. I'm not so attached to the idea that I would be hurt if it were shot down, this is merely for discussion. I had in mind that it would be slow moving and generally used cloaked, having a rather expensive cost with low armor but high HP. The tongue itself would be mostly armoured to avoid marines axing it off (which would be awesome if there were actually a "reel-in" period that allowed that to happen). To shorten the reel-in period, have the kham able to set it to not attack.. and wait for marines to get really close before putting in the attack command. If it's toggled so that it can attack on its own free will, it will just try to eat things at its maximum range. Lastly, make them able to be hallucinations.
Possible Upgrades: Paralytic Tongue. Adds armor piercing paralytic spikes to the tongue.
Comments
Right, it was kind of lame vs the Heavy Armor upgraded soldiers. But in NS2 you got the Exos, which are/should be immune to devour - so the attack is not too unbalanced at all.
I enjoyed the old times when somebody of the marine team began to scream "help me! I'm being eaten" and everybody gathers up to help him.
You should really think about implementing this ability again in NS2 - It was just unique to the game at all.
I agree it had some great moments of breaking out, but it also was a very frustrating mechanic to just snipe Marines and run away.
Also, adding a new lifeform is not in the design doc at this time and would require huge amounts of resources to get into the game.
heh :P