To agree with ironman, I have long felt that infestation has become more of a ball and chain for the aliens than any sort of serious feature with quantifiable advantages. Now that marines can build on it I feel it is even more so the case, all it seems to do is suck up resources, limit alien expansion, make defending your harvesters more difficult, and add busywork for the commander who has to manage and maintain the cyst chain in the face of marine harassment. This was not the original vision of infestation, I recall it being imagined as a very integral part of alien map control and something that would create concrete divisions between alien and marine territory.
P.S. I hate the autokill, it is very annoying. I hope it will one day be removed when optimization has rendered it unnecessary.
This. I really dislike seeing blatantly missed opportunities to capitalize on the few asymmetric elements left within the game and this is one of the larger ones. Changing how infestation works or what role it plays would be a big change to something very integral to the entire game, but UWE has already shown that they really don't mind making such potentially imbalancing changes through other updates so we may as well try to squeeze some innovation out of the less utilized but more interesting mechanics.
Personally I remember when in the earlier version of NS2 the Cysts had a HUGE Creep range 2-3 cysts could easily cover a room but the Creep and Cysts would offer a few bonuses that were minor but they were acceptable cause the aliens "Owned" that area.
What cysts and creep should provide in my opinion: Green = Wanted , Blue = Visual Items, Yellow = Possible but community feedback needed
1. Speed Boost - Not by a lot, but if the Aliens go through the process of spreading creep through their infected areas the standard walking speed should be relatively increased by a small percentage for being on their home turf. (ie sulk walking faster, gorge belly slide at maximum speed regardless of slide angle)
2. Regeneration Boost - Not by a lot, but being on ones home turf should give you some more healing properties when on them. I mean isn't the creep an extension of the hives influence? a small boost to normal regeneration and ability regeneration should be a small bonus for sitting on your turf. (ie aliens having passive Regen boost while not in combat on creep.)
4. Presence Sight - In earlier versions of NS2 the creep used to extend the sight of the alien commander by showing a black ink cloud whenever something foreign (marines or equipment) were walking or moving on the creep. once the object stopped the ink cloud would dissapear. its not a game breaking feature but it does help the alien commander identify "Rambo Mariene" running into their base and he can let his team know about it. I mean Marines can place an OBS down and see everything near their base why shouldent aliens be able to see a threat marker?
5. Walking Sound Suppression - Not complete silence but a 15%-20% reduction of walking sounds on your home turf would be nice, I mean since the creep is a living bio material shouldent it be soft and spongy? i understand aliens have claws and such but still the creep would reduce the impact of claws hitting the metal floors by a small margin.
6. Parasitic Rupture - An idea that I saw in the fourms floating around but I LOVE the idea of when rupturing a cyst why not include the green alien birth overlay to hinder marines vision and anything thats damaged by it also gives them parasite? i mean you willingly exploding a cyst for some tactical advantage why not make it worth giving up that 1 res structure you just built?
7. Creep growth structures - if anyone's like me and LOVES the gorge tunnel looks they would agree that I think of myself as more of an alien with i travel through them, the micro structures inside the gorge tunnels are a nice addition (things like coral and villi and others) are nice but they don't have to be solid, it would be a nice indication of showing that creep is very mature or showing that a CYST has been there for AWHILE (ie 5+min) if it would develop some individual characteristics it is a living being too.."But wait iClearSkies! i have a horrible computer setup?!!? it would drop my FPS!" Then use the Simple creep were it just covers everything in a green texture layer its in your options, you choose to have rich or simple textures.
8. Creep Radius - one of the cool things i like about NS2 is the Creep, but in order for me to make a room look..well.."creepy" is to place about like 6-7 cysts in a room on all the corners and open spaces to make it climb up the walls. Why not just increase the radius of creep growth to a certain horizontal extent (IE the range of the auto cyst acceptance range) and make the vertical climb spread unlimited, anything above the cyst i assume is alien territory so make hallways look beautiful and looming like was suggested in the NS2 Infestation Trailer cause that's what made me excited about NS2 Dynamic Living growth, make aliens look like aliens."
9. Building on Creep Just No, Marines should not be able to build on creep, AT. All. NS2 has some huge great environments but not being able to have creep block a ninja marine building portals and armories on some creep in the back unused corner of your base is a silly idea. marines should use flamethrowers to reduce the creep and place structures.
10. Creep Reduction by Flamethrower - Creep is dynamic is it not? Why not give marines the ability to BURN creep using a flamethrower without affecting the cyst. The flamethrower has an animations were it burns surfaces why not make the burning surface eat away the dynamic creep so they can build stuff. I pay near 20+ res for a flamer so it should be somewhat useful.
11. Creep Damages Structures - This was an awesome idea by UWE but it needs some buffing or some more ideals behind it, if Creep damages buildings i think its a bit too slow it should be upped by at least 3-4 more DPS and structures covered in creep should be at least spotted while being damaged by creep (parasite style) and maybe possibly disable automatic structures that give marines bonuses (IE Observatory, Armory, RT's, Power nodes should flicker lights in the room) this would also boost the usage of contamination in late game play to harm structures and weaken defenses. Or possibly give contamination this ability alone to help assist the team.
But i Digress, if you have and comments or suggestions feel free to talk about them.
Comments
This. I really dislike seeing blatantly missed opportunities to capitalize on the few asymmetric elements left within the game and this is one of the larger ones. Changing how infestation works or what role it plays would be a big change to something very integral to the entire game, but UWE has already shown that they really don't mind making such potentially imbalancing changes through other updates so we may as well try to squeeze some innovation out of the less utilized but more interesting mechanics.
What cysts and creep should provide in my opinion: Green = Wanted , Blue = Visual Items, Yellow = Possible but community feedback needed
1. Speed Boost - Not by a lot, but if the Aliens go through the process of spreading creep through their infected areas the standard walking speed should be relatively increased by a small percentage for being on their home turf. (ie sulk walking faster, gorge belly slide at maximum speed regardless of slide angle)
2. Regeneration Boost - Not by a lot, but being on ones home turf should give you some more healing properties when on them. I mean isn't the creep an extension of the hives influence? a small boost to normal regeneration and ability regeneration should be a small bonus for sitting on your turf. (ie aliens having passive Regen boost while not in combat on creep.)
4. Presence Sight - In earlier versions of NS2 the creep used to extend the sight of the alien commander by showing a black ink cloud whenever something foreign (marines or equipment) were walking or moving on the creep. once the object stopped the ink cloud would dissapear. its not a game breaking feature but it does help the alien commander identify "Rambo Mariene" running into their base and he can let his team know about it. I mean Marines can place an OBS down and see everything near their base why shouldent aliens be able to see a threat marker?
5. Walking Sound Suppression - Not complete silence but a 15%-20% reduction of walking sounds on your home turf would be nice, I mean since the creep is a living bio material shouldent it be soft and spongy? i understand aliens have claws and such but still the creep would reduce the impact of claws hitting the metal floors by a small margin.
6. Parasitic Rupture - An idea that I saw in the fourms floating around but I LOVE the idea of when rupturing a cyst why not include the green alien birth overlay to hinder marines vision and anything thats damaged by it also gives them parasite? i mean you willingly exploding a cyst for some tactical advantage why not make it worth giving up that 1 res structure you just built?
7. Creep growth structures - if anyone's like me and LOVES the gorge tunnel looks they would agree that I think of myself as more of an alien with i travel through them, the micro structures inside the gorge tunnels are a nice addition (things like coral and villi and others) are nice but they don't have to be solid, it would be a nice indication of showing that creep is very mature or showing that a CYST has been there for AWHILE (ie 5+min) if it would develop some individual characteristics it is a living being too.."But wait iClearSkies! i have a horrible computer setup?!!? it would drop my FPS!" Then use the Simple creep were it just covers everything in a green texture layer its in your options, you choose to have rich or simple textures.
8. Creep Radius - one of the cool things i like about NS2 is the Creep, but in order for me to make a room look..well.."creepy" is to place about like 6-7 cysts in a room on all the corners and open spaces to make it climb up the walls. Why not just increase the radius of creep growth to a certain horizontal extent (IE the range of the auto cyst acceptance range) and make the vertical climb spread unlimited, anything above the cyst i assume is alien territory so make hallways look beautiful and looming like was suggested in the NS2 Infestation Trailer cause that's what made me excited about NS2 Dynamic Living growth, make aliens look like aliens."
9. Building on Creep Just No, Marines should not be able to build on creep, AT. All. NS2 has some huge great environments but not being able to have creep block a ninja marine building portals and armories on some creep in the back unused corner of your base is a silly idea. marines should use flamethrowers to reduce the creep and place structures.
10. Creep Reduction by Flamethrower - Creep is dynamic is it not? Why not give marines the ability to BURN creep using a flamethrower without affecting the cyst. The flamethrower has an animations were it burns surfaces why not make the burning surface eat away the dynamic creep so they can build stuff. I pay near 20+ res for a flamer so it should be somewhat useful.
11. Creep Damages Structures - This was an awesome idea by UWE but it needs some buffing or some more ideals behind it, if Creep damages buildings i think its a bit too slow it should be upped by at least 3-4 more DPS and structures covered in creep should be at least spotted while being damaged by creep (parasite style) and maybe possibly disable automatic structures that give marines bonuses (IE Observatory, Armory, RT's, Power nodes should flicker lights in the room) this would also boost the usage of contamination in late game play to harm structures and weaken defenses. Or possibly give contamination this ability alone to help assist the team.
But i Digress, if you have and comments or suggestions feel free to talk about them.