Assisted Lerk Flapping Mode
IeptBarakat
The most difficult name to speak ingame. Join Date: 2009-07-10 Member: 68107Members, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow
The most difficult name to speak ingame. Join Date: 2009-07-10 Member: 68107Members, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow
I was discussing with others before about the minimum skill required to be effective with lerks and how a majority of the skill required lies within it's movement mechanics, which got me thinking if we could raise the effectiveness of a new or inexperienced lerk without nerfing it in any major way, so presenting my idea for Assisted Lerk Flapping Mode.
Assisted Lerk Flapping Mode is an auto enabled mode(for new players at least) that you can toggle in the options menu, which when a player evolves into a lerk it immediately lifts them up by a relative distance to the floor and keeps the player flapping to maintain that distance. The player can flap additionally to raise elevation and descend using the descend key which overrides auto flapping, they can also glide normally if they so choose, and pressing or holding shift would allow them to attach to a surface or floor if they wish to.
I believe this would give new players a better introduction to the lerk as an aerial lifeform and raise their minimum effectiveness in the battlefield without removing any of the skill or effectiveness in advanced lerk play.
Assisted Lerk Flapping Mode is an auto enabled mode(for new players at least) that you can toggle in the options menu, which when a player evolves into a lerk it immediately lifts them up by a relative distance to the floor and keeps the player flapping to maintain that distance. The player can flap additionally to raise elevation and descend using the descend key which overrides auto flapping, they can also glide normally if they so choose, and pressing or holding shift would allow them to attach to a surface or floor if they wish to.
I believe this would give new players a better introduction to the lerk as an aerial lifeform and raise their minimum effectiveness in the battlefield without removing any of the skill or effectiveness in advanced lerk play.
Comments
No...? The idea behind it was to get them situated into lerk movement from the get go, the only thing this does is rhythmic flapping.
No HP would be lost, only visual effects, like when hallucinations bite the marines.
Simply putting them in the air does not make them more evasive, nor does it help them learn to be evasive, or help them know when and how to engage a marine. I imagine it would make them play like a skulk except a relative distance above the floor. I don't see how that actually helps them learn the basics of lerking. They would die just as fast as they do as a skulk, except they would do it 2 feet in the air after spending 18 pres. As I understand it, this suggestion only helps new players realize they can fly which is so basic I don't think they need help with that.
I don't like to be so negative, but I do not see how this raises the minimum effectiveness unless they were walking the whole time as a lerk. Maybe others or yourself could elaborate on that.
In my opinion, the most necessary skill of the lerk is not the evasive maneuvers but how to engage a marine and when to leave. This is the same skill players struggle with as a skulk, lerk, and fade. Lerk makes it harder because you don't ambush and your health pool is low compared to your relative size. If we could teach players how to engage better, it would help far more than lerk even though lerk has a few extra requirements.
I don't have any onhand recordings as proof but I have on occasion shot a lerk to death as he was crawling away from me. My suggestion was simply for them to get a better understanding that the lifeform should be played in the air as opposed to flapping sluggishly in short bursts in as I've seen them do.
Having a low health indicator when a player reaches 40% eHP remaining would help this a lot.
- Most shooter games have that "close to empty clip sound" the emptier it gets.
- A most recent example, DooM 2016 has that *beep* *beep* when your HP is below a certain point, heck even DooM 3 had this!
- And we had a mod where the ammo indicator would blink red (now implemented) along with the DooM with a low ammo *beep* *beep*
For aliens we should have those as well, a low energy and HP warning sound and HUD indicator
Also we definitely need tutorials like this for Lerk pancakes
Are you sure 40% is the right number? It might work for some lifeforms but not others
I try to ambush as lerk constantly. The difference in ambush here is not by sitting in a corner though (even though I still do that) but in coming in from angles silently the marines can't see me from. Some also refer to this as flanking
It's purely subjective, but it seems to work well in my testing. I've been using it on Siege++ and my MvM server for about 2 months.
Well, yes, but I wouldn't call that ambushing. At least it is not at all like the ambushing you would do as a skulk. In my original post, I was describing this behavior you mentioned as how to engage a marine. This is a basic skill that players need to learn on all lifeforms.
To be fair, I have seen that behavior too. I said my initial post with that behavior in mind.
Some kind of "YOUR ABOUT TO DIE" indicator should exist. With lerk and fade, you often want to leave long before you even hit that point. I have thought that a good rule of thumb on at least lerk and onos is leaving when you are out of armor.
Please, please don't fuck up the existing lerk mechanics in an attempt to integrate "flappy lerk mode".
Wrong thread!
"Flappy lerk" as the mod is a very different idea than what this thread is talking about. You can give it a try here and leave feedback for Steelcap on workshop: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1259445997
1. There are two distinct ways to engage marines as a lerk, in melee with bite or at range with spikes, spores or umbra. An important skill is being able to tell when you should be attacking at range, when you should be attacking in melee, and when to transition between the two.
2. When a lerk is in the air there's a momentum & predictability to its movement, this makes them easy to track. An important skill is knowing that once you've engaged in combat with a marine you need to spasm about and actively fight against the momentum in a lerk's movement.
It might actually be useful if the lerk's special movement ability caused your momentum to be dramatically reduced instead of causing you to drop towards the ground - an air brake of sorts.
Because right now you really have to learn every little protrusion of geometry in every map (other classes too but fade more) and there are many
You don't have to hold control. It does make you a smaller target though. It is not a barrier when it isn't necessary. A fair point though.
For bullets? No.
Lerk air control (when not gliding) feels quite low, as it is less than half of the Fade's. Which is very ironic since Lerk is the one with wings.
I also find Lerk flight to be highly inconsistent in regard to reward vs skill complexity. Gliding is superior in control and ease of use than constantly flapping, the latter costs much more energy and causes lerk to move in a more predictable way. I wish flapping would help lerk evade fire by changing direction faster than holding glide and waving one's mouse wildly.