Hives anywhere?

Drone_Fragger · November 2006

<div class="IPBDescription">Wheres there is room that is.</div>I was just playing Tremulous (A free quake3 engine NS-sorta game) And I thought How neat it would be to put hives anywhere you want. Obviously the hives could only go where there was room (so no hiding a hive in a vent or something) but I think it would open up more tactics. The marines can lock down all the major sites they want, but they might not find that hive hidden under the massive staircase, or the hive build under a lift. This probebly won't work though, but I thought I'd suggest it none-the-less...

n0oNE · November 2006

Hm I think thats no very good idea at all. Its way more difficult to lock down every location on the map where a hive can be build. Even if you did, how can you know there arent any other locations, the aliens can build and the comm doesnt notice. Too much confusion for the marines imo!

im_lost · November 2006

Lots of scanning would allow you to find the hives. Maybe the method of victory wouldn't be locking down hive locations. The first problem that came to my mind is having multiple hives in a single room, but that could be prevented by forcing them to be spread out.

Microscopic_Man · November 2006

I agree with the problem about the spacing. Hives aren't that small you know. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink-fix.gif" /> The facilities that the NS battles are placed in, involve mainly Three big rooms for the hive to be spawned / placed. The rest of the facillity would be tight spaces that an Onos can barely squeeze through. If there was or is four giant rooms in a combat area/map, it would probably be occupied already by the Marines. You could always just make the map's hallways bigger, yet that would ruin the close combat aspect.

For example. A Marine training facility was infested with the Kharra menace. The only real places to position the Hives would be in... The Shooting Gallery, the Gym, or the Hangar. I guess another place to put the hive would be the Command Center (Like the big room with all the computers inside it in the NASA Headquarters in Huston.) One of the places (Probably the Armory) would be the Marine IP. Otherwise, they would probably be in the four locations I listed above. To my limited knowledge, Architects would try to make a facility small to their furthest extent (If possible) to save on money and resources. So of course, they wouldn't build big rooms unless it was important or if they wanted a gargantuan TV to play Halo 2 on.

So! Unless the Marines are the Master of Orion, or the Hives are now in compact flavours. Movable Hives (Like in tremulous. A great game nonetheless.) would probably not happen.

PogoP · November 2006

I can just imagine Gorges in NS2 finding a way to place hives outside the actual gameplay area...

"Good God Sarge, there's a Hive floating outside the window!"

TheOriginal10Round · November 2006

I don't see any problem with having more than 3 areas for hives , I would imagine that there would be more than one hangar or more than one warehouse at a facility........etc.........and to imagine that architects of the future would be thinking small is a bit of a stretch since apparently the populace can afford to fund a program that sends marines into space, why would they build small. I think more than set hive spots are a great idea, would add a stragedy we have yet to experience.

People need to free their minds and let NS2 advance the story of the war between humans and an alien race rather than devolve what would be a progression. Rather than..........nah THAT or THAT was talked about years ago and it doesn't fit NS............it's now NS2 , keep that in mind.

Krad · November 2006

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Microscopic_Man @ Nov 14 2006, 03:35 PM) [snapback]1577185[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'>So! Unless the Marines are the Master of Orion, or the Hives are now in compact flavours. Movable Hives (Like in tremulous. A great game nonetheless.) would probably not happen.
</div>

Brings <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?s=7160599813619073024&showtopic=46566&view=findpost&p=641325" target="_blank">this thread</a> to mind.

N_3 · November 2006

what if there were just more hive locations, it would stop marine lockdowning, keep them attacking instead. If NS2 has more technolgies/chambers and whatnot i dont see a huge problem for aliens having 4 or 5 hives. If they do get 5 hives however you'd imagine them to become rather unstopable. Perhaps make m/s a possible location, and if it gets hived creep goes everywhere? Or perhaps makes subsequent hives take more res/longer build times as the spores thin out for coverage?

TheOriginal10Round · November 2006

I would think that 3 hives would suffice as far as alien ablilties go, once 3 were built then that's it. Extra resources would be pooled up like they do now or but if more than 3 hives are built there's a resouce penalty because the resources are being spread to far out, the bonus is that if a perhaps 4th hive is taken down there is still Hive3 abilities available but the absence(or reduction) of resources from having a fail safe 4th hive is what could balance it out(meaning the aliens would have been hurt from a lack of resources). Any Gorge would think twice about dumping the res into a 4ht hive unless doom was knocking at the door.

Which to say brings up another point, if 3 hives are up or even a 4th, a cool down should be applied before another hive can be erected. This would deter gorges from hording res and camping hive areas. So if 3 hives are up and 1 hive is taken down, reducing the hive total to 2(a set amount of time to be determined) would have to pass before a gorge can drop a hive, where as no time penalty would be incurred if 3 hives are standing and a 4th was to be dropped, only a resource penalty. A wonderful dynamic.

Soul_Rider · November 2006

I don't think you need more than 3 hives, but having the options of 5 or more hive locations would definitely help with the ebb and flow of a game, and quite possibly lead to the more epic cut and thrust of games that people have been complaining about.

As for the hive lockdown problem, while it wouldn't stop it, it would certainly reduce it. Say there are 5 possible hive locations...

Marines relocate into 1, lockdown other 2 as standard, then they can have a free for all fight with aliens for the only remaining hive, or got for main hive and try and take it down before aliens get it built.

It does make lockdown harder, but then in real life marines would not know where the aliens are going to build a hive, so lockdowns would never happen, and that is why the multiple hive rooms strikes a chord with me. In reall life marines would not know where a hive was going to form, so they shouldn't in game..

glimmerman · November 2006

I think that as soon as the third hive goes up the "creep" that we've all been talking about should absolutley cover the map, or at least increase 2 fold. This way the marines know straight away (apart from xeno, and acide rocket etc) that the third hive is up and they are in the sh!t.

How about this... more hive locations, but you can still only drop 3 hives. That way theres no point locking down hive location "x" as there is still 4 locations left.

N_3 · November 2006

If NS2 is being extended with more stuff all round, theres no reason that 3 hives needs be the peak, it should be strong yes, but some incredible feat like 5 hives should give the aliens insane endgame technologies.

Drone_Fragger · November 2006

I was thinking more along the lines of 3 hives maximum, but 7 possible locations. Ish. Becuase It would stop lockdowning, reward commanders who actually get the marines to search for hives, And, It means that the games last longer. Aliens could hang on by hopping from hive to hive, while marines chasae them all other the place.

Ebayle · November 2006

The ability to deploy hives anywhere: Mappers nightmare... All the player starts that would be put.. Unless if somehow respawn locations are coded in to the hive or somthing.

Still, i think we have it right, with the hive locations preset and all, but. I do think it is a good idea to increase the locations that are avalible to build a hive. Like a maximum of 3 hives, and a minimum of 3 hive locations, a max of.. 5-10? (would require some testing.) and would differ in each map, for example. in ns_potato, there are 3 hive locations, but in ns_taco there are 5 hive locations.

I also think that this idea would go quite well with the docking point thing being discussed in <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?s=3595887077580644352&showtopic=98683" target="_blank">This Thread.</a>

Hives anywhere?

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