Idea to make Alien more resilient without mucking up the game
tarquinbb
Join Date: 2012-11-03 Member: 166314Members
Join Date: 2012-11-03 Member: 166314Members
Disclaimer: The general consensus is that both Alien and Marine teams are more or less balanced in b240. It's only a little wobbly with game duration and other factors, and therefore the aim of my idea is to make the Alien tech system a little more forgiving.
First of all, I'm making the following assumptions:
1. Alien securing three Hives is almost a guaranteed Alien win, ergo third Hive tech (Umbra, Xeno, Vortex etc) is almost impossible to achieve in a contested game.
2. Second Hive tech (especially Leap) is almost essential after early Marine upgrades, ergo dropping down to a singular Hive is an almost impossible situation to recover from.
3. If Aliens are able to take a third Hive then promptly lose it; they deserve a little more to show for it than a 'one time only' TRes Onos (current meta/map design makes it incredibly difficult to secure a third Hive in a contested game).
My idea which is directed at solving the above issues would be to keep the Hive requirement for researching each Alien tech at the same level, but reduce the requirement to use that ability by one Hive. For example if you finish your third Hive and successfully research Umbra, as long as you maintain two Hives then you'll have access to Umbra [losing Umbra if you drop to a single Hive].
In addition to tackling the above issues, this change would additionally...
- Provide a little incentive to drop a risky Hive in order to complete an important tech (such as Leap) when afraid of Marine pressure.
- Make redundant abilities such as Xenocide and Vortex available in contested games and therefore more useful.
- Increase Alien resilience when falling back onto a single Hive; by retaining key abilities such as Leap, Blink and Bile Bomb.
Note: I'm aware that Xenocide and Umbra are incredibly strong abilities, so they would possibly need toning down depending on how capable the Marine team are of preventing that third Hive.
I don't know if the dev's frequent the idea's forum, but I'd be interested to hear everyone's take on this idea.
First of all, I'm making the following assumptions:
1. Alien securing three Hives is almost a guaranteed Alien win, ergo third Hive tech (Umbra, Xeno, Vortex etc) is almost impossible to achieve in a contested game.
2. Second Hive tech (especially Leap) is almost essential after early Marine upgrades, ergo dropping down to a singular Hive is an almost impossible situation to recover from.
3. If Aliens are able to take a third Hive then promptly lose it; they deserve a little more to show for it than a 'one time only' TRes Onos (current meta/map design makes it incredibly difficult to secure a third Hive in a contested game).
My idea which is directed at solving the above issues would be to keep the Hive requirement for researching each Alien tech at the same level, but reduce the requirement to use that ability by one Hive. For example if you finish your third Hive and successfully research Umbra, as long as you maintain two Hives then you'll have access to Umbra [losing Umbra if you drop to a single Hive].
In addition to tackling the above issues, this change would additionally...
- Provide a little incentive to drop a risky Hive in order to complete an important tech (such as Leap) when afraid of Marine pressure.
- Make redundant abilities such as Xenocide and Vortex available in contested games and therefore more useful.
- Increase Alien resilience when falling back onto a single Hive; by retaining key abilities such as Leap, Blink and Bile Bomb.
Note: I'm aware that Xenocide and Umbra are incredibly strong abilities, so they would possibly need toning down depending on how capable the Marine team are of preventing that third Hive.
I don't know if the dev's frequent the idea's forum, but I'd be interested to hear everyone's take on this idea.
Comments
+3 health
+4 armor
Or
+5 health
+3 armor
(less of a nerf to pistol/skulk gameplay)
This alone would even things up as they stand imo