Babblers are useless

WingflierWingflier Join Date: 2013-03-07 Member: 183769Members
edited March 2013 in NS2 General Discussion
Even after the small buff.

Their pathing is kind of bad, the bug bait is kind of weird, but mostly their damage is just too small.

I've literally had a situation as a Gorge where I kited a Marine around for about 45 seconds, constantly healing in his face, with an army of Babbles attacking him, and I still died before he did.

In the last game I played (as Marine), it was the first time I ever encountered Babblers. I literally walked up to one on purpose, just to see how much damage the little guy would do. Without any armor upgrades, I think it did 2 damage to my health and 3 damage to my armor. It was freaking pathetic.
I can understand why they could have been intentionally made weak to prevent it from becoming to powerful a tactic for the early-game combat, but in their current form they are just too useless. I would rather they be another purchasable hive upgrade and become much more violent and damaging. A good example would be the 'Narks' or 'Nerks', whatever they are called from the original Half life. Those little bastards had moderate damage but it was mainly the fact that they would always be right up in your face biting that was their main strength.
I agree with this guy's suggestion. Make Babblers a 2-Hive upgrade, and make them much more powerful.

The fact of the matter is that Gorge's don't NEED them. Gorges were doing just fine before the Babbler came along, so now you've given them a skill which wastes their own resources, and which they can contribute just as well without anyway. If Babblers are to become useful, Gorges are going to have to WANT them, and for that to happen, their power has to increase dramatically.

I wouldn't make this post if I didn't care, but I LOVE the concept of the Babblers, the execution is just severely flawed.
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Comments

  • YuukiYuuki Join Date: 2010-11-20 Member: 75079Members
    I don't think you want strong attacking babblers, as it would mean strong AI units, which doesn't fit well in a multiplayer game.
  • WingflierWingflier Join Date: 2013-03-07 Member: 183769Members
    I see no problem with it. Making it a 2-Hive ability means there is only a small window of time anyway before Grenade Launchers and Flamethrowers become available, and at that point Babblers would decline in usefulness dramatically.
  • WheeeeWheeee Join Date: 2003-02-18 Member: 13713Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    the babblers do 10 damage per bite, i believe. with 9 babblers, that's 90 dps against an extractor. a gorge with babblers can probably snipe res towers pretty well.
  • VonGerstenbergVonGerstenberg Join Date: 2013-02-15 Member: 183076Members
    That and you don't have to use them. Just like how marines can win a game without flame throwers. Just another option that makes a class more versatile.
  • WingflierWingflier Join Date: 2013-03-07 Member: 183769Members
    edited March 2013
    Bile Bomb is infinitely more useful against Res Towers, and much better at sniping them, not to mention that Bile Bomb doesn't cost personal resources. You're also assuming that you can get all 9 Babblers to constantly attack the extractor, and that they attack once per second, which I'm sorry to say is nonsense. 9 Babblers would die before they even killed an Extractor, and that's assuming nobody came to help.

    Also, Flamethrowers actually serve a purpose. Babblers serve no purpose.
  • meatmachinemeatmachine South England Join Date: 2013-01-06 Member: 177858Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Supporter
    Babblers should cling indefinitely to lifeforms, and be attachable to structures.
    Also you should be able to combine them all into one giant super-babbler that has bombard whip pubic hair and on death explodes with the force of a neutron bomb
  • WheeeeWheeee Join Date: 2003-02-18 Member: 13713Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    the point is that babblers add dps. and they only cost 3 p-res. of course bilebomb will be faster (although bilebomb+babblers is faster still). Also, this allows you to harass extractors before 2nd hive/bb.

    try it before you spout crap.
  • WingflierWingflier Join Date: 2013-03-07 Member: 183769Members
    Wheeee wrote: »
    the point is that babblers add dps. and they only cost 3 p-res. of course bilebomb will be faster (although bilebomb+babblers is faster still). Also, this allows you to harass extractors before 2nd hive/bb.

    try it before you spout crap.
    I have tried it.

    You clearly haven't, because you have no idea what you're talking about. Babblers don't do 90 DPS against extractors, in fact I'm quite sure they don't even attack once per second, and that's not even factoring their subpar pathfinding, and their hyper-passivity, even in the midst of a heated battle surrounded by Marines.

    You literally have no idea what you're talking about. In the time it took you to plant 3 Babbler Eggs, then hatch them, then send in the bug bait to the Extractor, you would LOSE DPS against the Extractor that you could have just spend those 10 seconds Bile Bombing it.

    Please just stop talking.
  • paologerochipaologerochi Join Date: 2010-04-25 Member: 71534Members
    Babblers are just like Half-Life 2 Antlion, but Antlions were 10x bigger than Blabblers..
  • Katana-Katana- Join Date: 2008-11-25 Member: 65575Members
    edited March 2013
    Wingflier wrote: »
    Wheeee wrote: »
    the point is that babblers add dps. and they only cost 3 p-res. of course bilebomb will be faster (although bilebomb+babblers is faster still). Also, this allows you to harass extractors before 2nd hive/bb.

    try it before you spout crap.
    I have tried it.

    You clearly haven't, because you have no idea what you're talking about. Babblers don't do 90 DPS against extractors, in fact I'm quite sure they don't even attack once per second, and that's not even factoring their subpar pathfinding, and their hyper-passivity, even in the midst of a heated battle surrounded by Marines.

    You literally have no idea what you're talking about. In the time it took you to plant 3 Babbler Eggs, then hatch them, then send in the bug bait to the Extractor, you would LOSE DPS against the Extractor that you could have just spend those 10 seconds Bile Bombing it.

    Please just stop talking.

    please compare the effectiveness of tier 0 and tier 2 upgrades more, it is obviously a very useful comparison.
  • luminalumina Join Date: 2012-06-15 Member: 153300Members
    Wingflier wrote: »
    Bile Bomb is infinitely more useful against Res Towers, and much better at sniping them, not to mention that Bile Bomb doesn't cost personal resources. You're also assuming that you can get all 9 Babblers to constantly attack the extractor, and that they attack once per second, which I'm sorry to say is nonsense. 9 Babblers would die before they even killed an Extractor, and that's assuming nobody came to help.

    Also, Flamethrowers actually serve a purpose. Babblers serve no purpose.

    You don't start with bile, which makes that a silly argument. "Yeah, well the two hive upgrade is better than the starting ability!"Duh...

    They cost 3 res for 9 of them. They shouldn't be anything more than a distraction. They can help a lot when used as armor as long as the blocked primary attack bug is actyally fixed.
  • luminalumina Join Date: 2012-06-15 Member: 153300Members
    And bile bomb is also better then hydras at attacking buildings. They cost 3 res each.
  • GeekavengerGeekavenger Join Date: 2012-08-31 Member: 157117Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    I feel like babblers are more useful as a distraction in a big battle or just before. Send them in prior to a big skulk rush and watch the marines waste ammo on them.

    Personally I feel like they are a waste of p-res in most situations, they do still have a purpose. That purpose just isn't DPS.

    On that note, I feel like if they had faster more erratic pathing towards marines and did a little more damage they would be harder to hit and a bigger threat to force marines to expend ammo on them... but also as was pointed out PvE is not the point so buffing AI may not make sense, so maybe instead of DPS we could focus on the babblers soaking up more bullets increase health slightly and make them even faster (241 saw an increase in babbler speed). Or maybe give them a speed bonus when targeting a marine.
  • XariusXarius Join Date: 2003-12-21 Member: 24630Members, Reinforced - Supporter
    I'd rather they get buffed on all fronts and received a little cost increase to go with that, because as it stands they really don't do much at all. And PLEASE get rid of those ridiculous timers.
  • WingflierWingflier Join Date: 2013-03-07 Member: 183769Members
    lumina wrote: »
    You don't start with bile, which makes that a silly argument. "Yeah, well the two hive upgrade is better than the starting ability!"Duh...

    They cost 3 res for 9 of them. They shouldn't be anything more than a distraction. They can help a lot when used as armor as long as the blocked primary attack bug is actyally fixed.
    You don't need Gorges to kill Extractors in the first place early on. Skulks can do it just fine, do it much faster, and it costs no resources. By the time you NEED Gorges to kill structures, any competent Commander would have already researched Bile Bomb, as its one of the best upgrades in the game.

    Your argument is invalid.
  • luminalumina Join Date: 2012-06-15 Member: 153300Members
    Wingflier wrote: »
    lumina wrote: »
    You don't start with bile, which makes that a silly argument. "Yeah, well the two hive upgrade is better than the starting ability!"Duh...

    They cost 3 res for 9 of them. They shouldn't be anything more than a distraction. They can help a lot when used as armor as long as the blocked primary attack bug is actyally fixed.
    You don't need Gorges to kill Extractors in the first place early on. Skulks can do it just fine, do it much faster, and it costs no resources. By the time you NEED Gorges to kill structures, any competent Commander would have already researched Bile Bomb, as its one of the best upgrades in the game.

    Your argument is invalid.

    You also don't need to go gorge or buy babblers. Your arguments are invalid.
  • WingflierWingflier Join Date: 2013-03-07 Member: 183769Members
    edited March 2013
    You also don't need to go gorge or buy babblers. Your arguments are invalid.
    ???

    A Gorge's role early on is not to kill Structures, it's to defend key positions and assist building Hives. You don't go Gorge early game for killing structures, nor should they even be that close to the front lines until you start getting Fades and Onos, at which point you'll already have Bile Bomb...
  • luminalumina Join Date: 2012-06-15 Member: 153300Members
    Wingflier wrote: »
    You also don't need to go gorge or buy babblers. Your arguments are invalid.
    ???

    A Gorge's role early on is not to kill Structures, it's to defend key positions and assist building Hives. You don't go Gorge early game for killing structures, nor should they even be that close to the front lines until you start getting Fades and Onos, at which point you'll already have Bile Bomb...

    I think you are just proving that you don' lt know how to gorge. You don't even try to support your team. You are also expecting far too much from something that has 1/9th the cost per unit compared to hydras. Hydras aren't very good either. I don't know why you expect an even cheaper unit to be better.
  • paologerochipaologerochi Join Date: 2010-04-25 Member: 71534Members
    Blabblers can't even be called as a distraction...

    Blabblers should be like this --> http://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/128875/suggestions-to-make-blabblers-useful#latest
  • GorgenapperGorgenapper Join Date: 2012-09-05 Member: 157916Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    Last night I used babblers with some degree of effectiveness. Gorged up, made some babblers and got them to cling to me. Attacked the base with my suicide adrenaline/carapace bile gorge and survived ~2 seconds longer, which was just long enough to spit out another bile bomb and kill the structures I was attacking. The only downside is that babblers fall off after 20 seconds, I really think they should cling indefinitely until the bait ball is tossed elsewhere. Oh, and they shouldn't auto die after 2 mins.
  • joederpjoederp Join Date: 2012-11-02 Member: 165992Members
    Last night I used babblers with some degree of effectiveness. Gorged up, made some babblers and got them to cling to me. Attacked the base with my suicide adrenaline/carapace bile gorge and survived ~2 seconds longer, which was just long enough to spit out another bile bomb and kill the structures I was attacking. The only downside is that babblers fall off after 20 seconds, I really think they should cling indefinitely until the bait ball is tossed elsewhere. Oh, and they shouldn't auto die after 2 mins.

    Agreed - they should not be a competent offensive unit. It would be stupid if the whole alien team went gorge and marines kept dying to a swarm of babblers .. they should buff them to be a defensive unit, just like the gorge. They should be able to act as an armor buff, adding an extra 50 armor to a player until they are shot off. They should be able to attack but it should be useless , like they are now.
    It would be cool of the gorge could attach them to a player either as defensive (add armor) or regenerative (slowly heal the player similar to regeneration).

    They should buff the gorge, but they should not replace the gorge in combat.
  • JCDentonJCDenton Join Date: 2013-03-07 Member: 183768Members
    joederp wrote: »
    Last night I used babblers with some degree of effectiveness. Gorged up, made some babblers and got them to cling to me. Attacked the base with my suicide adrenaline/carapace bile gorge and survived ~2 seconds longer, which was just long enough to spit out another bile bomb and kill the structures I was attacking. The only downside is that babblers fall off after 20 seconds, I really think they should cling indefinitely until the bait ball is tossed elsewhere. Oh, and they shouldn't auto die after 2 mins.

    Agreed - they should not be a competent offensive unit. It would be stupid if the whole alien team went gorge and marines kept dying to a swarm of babblers .. they should buff them to be a defensive unit, just like the gorge. They should be able to act as an armor buff, adding an extra 50 armor to a player until they are shot off. They should be able to attack but it should be useless , like they are now.
    It would be cool of the gorge could attach them to a player either as defensive (add armor) or regenerative (slowly heal the player similar to regeneration).

    They should buff the gorge, but they should not replace the gorge in combat.

    Actually, a passive regen when being covered in Babblers might be kind of cool
  • ekscomekscom Join Date: 2012-08-22 Member: 156245Members
    I agree. They are useless right now. At best they are mildly annoying to a marine. Unfortunately they are 50 times more annoying to me cause i just wasted my res on them and they did nothing useful. If they were free I'd use my time spawning them but that's as much as i wanna pay.
    As defense, they detach too fast, expire after 2 mins, or get shot off in seconds. As offensive unit 9 of them cant kill a lvl 0/0 marine. Until they can do either of those things and justify my 3 res i'll just keep my res for something useful.
  • RockyMarcRockyMarc Join Date: 2009-11-24 Member: 69519Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    Change their attack design all together I recon, it's useless currently.
    Make them explode near marines like little bile bombs that wear armour off marines only and not structures. :)
  • Kouji_SanKouji_San Sr. Hινε Uρкεερεг - EUPT Deputy The Netherlands Join Date: 2003-05-13 Member: 16271Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
    edited March 2013
    Marine's Shotgun would like a word with you, George bullet sponge trolls...


    --
    They are a tad bit bit clunky to attach them to youself or your aliens buddies, though...
  • weeschweeweeschwee Join Date: 2010-11-19 Member: 75031Members
    I just played a game as marine. There was a gorge in a vent above nano. He was spawning babblers and flushing out our mines from complete safety. I'm not sure how much more effective babblers are against mines compared to normal spit or bile bomb, but I'm sure those babblers cost a lot less res than the mines.
  • Crumbling EgoCrumbling Ego Join Date: 2012-10-30 Member: 164692Members
    I feel like there should be a balance mod dedicated to babblers, just to find out what it would take to make them useful,
  • Llama2000Llama2000 Join Date: 2010-02-14 Member: 70567Members
    I'm honestly not minding babblers as they stand with my only real objection being that either the PRes cost should be lowered or the timer removed. I'm not sure having them cling indefinitely would be wise but a little longer wouldn't hurt. I'm fairly certain they still fail miserably at damaging a marine that's moving but I don't view them as a DPS tool anyway. They make a decent distraction when turtling and have saved my backside on more than one occasion simply by soaking up ammo. They also make a useful little buff when I'm acting as the heal station, I'll cough up a couple of eggs between heals, then just hit up a skulk or fade with the bait ball before I start healing. By the time they are healed they generally have a full compliment of Babblers. Whilst the damage they soak is pretty meaningless it's rather more substantial for a skulk or fade particularly when trying to push busy rooms.

    In fairness though, my willingness to blow PRes on them is kind of skewed by the fact that I'm typically perma gorge if I have teammates actually worth healing.
  • CrazyEddieCrazyEddie Join Date: 2013-01-08 Member: 178196Members
    I won't be satisfied until babblers piss me off as much as clogs, spit, BB, hydras, and healspray do.

    I hate gorges. And I love it that I hate gorges.
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