I have to agree. Generally, you're already winning or screwed by the time you get an Onos.
I don't like the Chakra idea, it's kinda cheap...
I loved the 'sonic' type alien that could roll around.
Anyways, here's my idea. How about an alien that makes use of the glorious gravity gun type weapon? also known as telekinesis with organic aliens. Here's what it could do:
With 1 hive, it could only pick up small objects, at level 2 it could pick up larger ones, and at level 3 it could pick up marines, but it does NOT kill them in one hit. It only deals damage when they hit something, and the marines could still fire back at the alien. It would be a slow alien, only moderate HP, slightly lower than a fade. The alien could 'launch' the marine it is carrying, much like the gravity gun, and knock other marines down, or just deal extra damage. However, the amount of adrenaline to do this would be huge. Here are the techniques:
1. weak telekinesis - picks up small objects 2. telekinetic wave - pings marines on the map, kinda like parasite, for a short time. 3. telekinesis - picks up larger objects, takes more adrenaline. 4. strong telekinesis - able to pick up marines. Takes extremely high adrenaline per second, more than charge. Shooting a marine takes at least 3/4 of the alien's max adrenaline.
EDIT: instead of the telekinetic wave, how about an ability where it raised a shield that blocked bullets? (Not explosives)
If you wanted a new type of Kharaa, you would have to trace down the route of "Natural Selection". The Kharaa evolves rapidly in response to new threats.
<i>The 'real' Kharaa, the bacteria, evolves and produces the infestation.
The humans fight the infestation.
The infestation evolves further, and produces a Hive.
The humans fight the Hive.
The Hive evolves further, and starts producing Skulks to counter-attack the humans.
The humans multiply.
Some of the Skulks evolve to Gorges via natural selection to build defences.
The humans get ways of getting around faster (jetpacks, phasegates)
Some of the aliens evolve to Lerks via natural selection.
The humans evolve stronger weaponry and new armor.
Some of the aliens evolve to Fades in response to this.
The humans evolve EVEN STRONGER weaponry and very hard armors.
The aliens evolve even further down the path of physical strength and the Onos is born.</i>
To me, it would seem that the Kharaa are nearing the end of this line of natural selection. Their physical strength is already at it's highest peak.
As for their mental strength, I believe they are already on a very high level, but quite differently from humans. Instead of having single minds, they have a common "hive mind". All the Kharaa are linked together via the Hive, and if the Kharaa evolved further down the intellctual path, it would mean the Hive is rendered useless.
Personally I believe this is a too radical turn in the process of natural selection, and should be discarded.
I think, that if we are to figure out the next possible step in the evolutionary process of the Kharaa, we'll need some more information on what the humans have up their sleeves.
To me, it would seem that all the evolutionary stages the Kharaa have are all responses to the actions of humans.
<!--quoteo(post=1591644:date=Dec 23 2006, 03:33 PM:name=Xerond)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Xerond @ Dec 23 2006, 03:33 PM) [snapback]1591644[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> That makes for a cool idea (The Chakra) You said its blind and senses movement. What if aliens in NS2 had could have different view modes? If you evolve Chakra, you're sight is more sonar, the world is darker and you can barely SEE things, but if it moves it becomes visable. This way you could make the alien a strong one, almost like an onos, but he is handicapped when a marine doesn't move. Almost like the T-REX theory of vision. That would be cool. <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Maybe "Berserker" (sounds dangerous) is a better name O:, just like in Gears of War. The thing is blind, but it senses smell and sound. I mean, if a person was to be a berserker (or chakra) you would see concentric rings kinda like the ripple effect when you throw a stone in the water to help you out where the enemies are. Your screen would be pretty much black with these blue rings all over the place (should be a way to only detect enemy noise to avoid confusion). Obviously, since this is a disadvantage, it is compensated by the considerable amount of damage that it does. But then again, it abilities can be countered by walking only if your far enough away. Since it can also smell, a walking marine within range would show up kinda like scent of fear. I guess, i took a lot of it from DareDevil the movie, but hey it works.
but ns2 is the war it could be out side larger area's rens have tanks, they have mounted AA guns for air def, they have osalating remote vulcons tsa style modifyed riped strait out of the classic A 10 desing
they have leapard tanks fited with A retractable harvest Scythe on the side for riping mini low lvl khara chambers to peices
they have chrano APC's fited with phase tech to bail out and get back to base if need be, note it doesnt phase back parasited rines due to there infection
they have a radical two - 3 man jet chopper hybrid with vertigo, with insectaside side winders and a tail vonrable to a kharaa tallon like alien
this is bug eradication people if you can figure a way to attach a giant fly swatter to the hull of a space ship, and not have it negatively effect the ships usful ness DO SO
you bring in a flame thrower a few types of tanks larger manned base defense and air assult, cuplled with new types of phase tech
phase gun... siarra PORTALS?, rine holds down triger longer they hold down further they portal, you can portal thro walls but if you portal to far you gib in the wall
we are not talking about 3 hives i na clostraphobic enviroment here people, we are talking about clutered thick jungle or rock arid canyons multiple hives, res farms with up to 6 nodes in each farm
main high ways of the map semi open with side line cover, res of the map clostraphobic cover, maps large enough cycleing enough they are ny impossable to learn all of to exstend the life span of play
so aliens need tunnels something needs to dig them, if there water kharaa need to adapt to it
SC?, yeah kharaa have SC's, gorges build them, gorges can even combine res to make huge floating zeplins like overlords that can move around at a low - medium speed and shower down a cloaking feild, said zeplin can adjust its high a bit and also has enough landing area
you think rines have scan any more, sure they do, but for out sdie they can call a strike in for a slight delay and prahaps a cool down striek comes in atmospheric balistic is lunched breaks up at about 1,000 feet and the spread of cluster scaner, a spread that always changes not like the shot gun spread but always changes and as each cluster hits the ground many mini pings fire off, and last for about 30 seconds
seige gun? sure shy not also ion seige gun can put a hive on near death for a 15 minute cool down and a 10 second warm up time
thats ok most hives can moved slightly enough if a gorge or a queen is intentive enough
sorry queen, how about dark queen, she lords over kharaa grave yards obsorbing and reataching giblets and fragments of kharaa bacterium not ready to give up the fight, any number of spike claws carapace she could have on her, the more kharaa that die the stronger she gets
come on people stab your self in the head and leak out some creative juices
tottal forget every thing from ns one and use it all as a back drop a story line and as a itty bitty singular puzzle peice, that could make up a infinaite ever changeing larger picture puzzle
OC yep but place it near a solid object or in a area harvest tanks can mow it down, why not place it on one or two of the set or unset placements on the samarta shoot, a huge tree like vine that mario could climb each overly large leaf like plate form can house a OC to increase the plants range ROF potency and projectile amount
how do you stop a harvester tank? berrie it, ether with a spice wyrum, or a punji like bacterium pit fall trap
come on weapon 4 on all normal life forms we have now is going to be easyly obtainable, think of the res flow in seige maps
think of up to 20 diff hives if you so desire to, think of new weapon types and or new ways to unlock them, new buildings coming out of combined gorge res buildings the size of ready rooms a star craft queens nest but with many many lvls and port hole heaps of tiny sulk like tunneling net works
you drop one of them with 20 meters on ether side of it thru a canyon and ill garentee no rines will be brave enough to try and sneak past it
<!--quoteo(post=1592731:date=Dec 28 2006, 07:52 AM:name=cerberus5)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(cerberus5 @ Dec 28 2006, 07:52 AM) [snapback]1592731[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> Maybe "Berserker" (sounds dangerous) is a better name O:, just like in Gears of War. The thing is blind, but it senses smell and sound. I mean, if a person was to be a berserker (or chakra) you would see concentric rings kinda like the ripple effect when you throw a stone in the water to help you out where the enemies are. Your screen would be pretty much black with these blue rings all over the place (should be a way to only detect enemy noise to avoid confusion). Obviously, since this is a disadvantage, it is compensated by the considerable amount of damage that it does. But then again, it abilities can be countered by walking only if your far enough away. Since it can also smell, a walking marine within range would show up kinda like scent of fear. I guess, i took a lot of it from DareDevil the movie, but hey it works. <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
With risk to sound negative, that would confuse the living hell out of new players (me too). Unless there is some basic sense of level structure your pretty much stumbling in the darkness. Also because of this huge disadvantage (your blind and cant sense non-moving marines until they're near) there should be a big bonus in HP/damage or whatever. However doing that would make pro players tear marines apart with this creature.
It should rather be toggled by something tbh else it wont work.
You guys are still limiting yourselves as one of you already pointed out about only thinking in the confines of a spaceship.
The Kharaa are, on a basic level, sentient bacteria with psionic abilities, yes? (Note: The conclusion of psionic abilities comes from the idea that the hive can transmit information directly to all aliens at all times.)
Why would the Kharaa curse themselves with zoological (designs based on animal forms for the less apt...) limits? These bacteria deserve to be beaten if the best they can come up with is two forms of dogs, a bird, humanoid and a rhino. What stops them from using their bacterial forms at a basic level?
One of what I suggest here is something reminiscent of a moving... 'lichen' colony. As a primary function, I would imagine this thing could be used to help the dynamic infestation spread faster by... oh I don't know, 'preparing' the upcoming strata or even be used to give an 'armor coating' to alien structures. That would take up its Hive1 ability if we go by NS1 rules (skill 2). The skill itself would be kind of a bacterial spray, similar to the Gorge's. The first skill would have to be a faster movement ability. If you know your bacterial colonies... they tend to not move, and if they do, it tends to be impressively slow. Maybe something along the lines of a charged leap that varies in speed/distance. The ability itself would need a high reuse timer to prevent some goon from using this thing as a major weapon against marines all the time. The hive2 ability would take the form of another bacterial spray. This one would be offensively-based, however, in that it would be more along the lines of say... a parasitic spray. Kind of like a lerk "Spore" that continually haunts a marine for a short distance or even a longer distance if you add in a random chance of that marine getting a particularly bad infection (maybe less than a 10% chance of this?). The potency of this attack would only be increased with more hives, maybe adding 2-4% chance of a greater infection per hive on a marine. The way the marines would counter this would be simply with a little luck and a medpack. The bad infection would only be available once on a marine and if it didn't infect them badly the first time, it simply won't ever. The damage from the infection could range from minor health loss to full-blown crippling of movement and reaction, maybe even being a <i>extremely</i> chance-based counter to catalyst? A fourth (final?) ability is a bit iffy for me. I couldn't really think of anything. About the best I could come up with is a sort of 'psionic wave.' Maybe resulting in a disruption of action by marines. Not a halting of action like stomp, a disruption. What you would end up with say... a WASD movement configuration would result in your W switching with your D and your S switching with your A temporarily. I would nickname the 'brain fart'-emitter, but that's just me.
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Another suggestion would be of a fungal or plant-based lifeform. This is something I considered building a model for NS1 and having a friend help me code it into the game, but decided the HL1 engine was a little too limited for what I intended at the time... It could move, but whilst moving, it would be <i>completely</i> defenseless, unable to take any action. However, when it would set up, it would be near impossible to remove. When set in place, it receives a bonus 'resistance.' That resistance would equate to maybe 1/4 or even 1/5 damage from bullet-based weaponry and even 1/2 damage from explosives (assuming that there isn't a more volatile explosive being used). The weakness to this would be a boon to people equipped with the upcoming flamethrower: 2-5x damage. Now then, the purpose of this lifeform would be to be an ultimate defense. It would require multiple hives to survive. Without the support of the necessary number of hives, I would say it should slowly degenerate and eventually die. How this lifeform functions is that if you set your base structure in place (you can pull up and haul ###### out of a location too, nothing stopping you), you can release a number of 'tendrils' to locations of your choosing (within range) which you choose by "firing" at places that get the "okay" from your crosshair for range. When the tendrils crawl their way across to the locations, you are given some options on what to do with each tendril. One could be a mini-energy nozzle, acting as a personal movement chamber for your use, this would require movement upgrades to be available and since you're limited to maybe 12-18 different vines (each offensive leg would count as a vine, too), you might want to limit yourself to one or two. The next node would be able to coat a region with a transparent, sticky sap that could partially snare marine's movement until they got out of it. You wouldn't be controlling this, it would simply coat a region around it in the sap. A third node would be a nectar-producing node that provides no bonus to you, only your team, acting as a maybe a quick regeneration/energy recovering medicine or maybe as a catalyst-like drug (the way to make this interesting would be to color that alien's vision with a nice red overtone and maybe cause the alien to lose regeneration while the drug is active). Each use would be based on the size of the alien using it. Maybe an onos only gets a 1/2 effect from the entire node of nectar as opposed to maybe 6 skulks getting a full effect from a full node of nectar. This nectar would regenerate in a very slow manner, constantly taking energy away from you. The final node type would be offensively-and-observationally-based. The first part of the node would be another 'eye' that you would switch to to see down another hallway or direction. Accompanying this eye would be anywhere from 0-5 offensive legs that would be placed by that eye in the same manner the base structure placed the other nodes, with a much shorter range, however. Now, you would have to be careful here, as that eye controls those spikes and if you do something stupid like place a spike on the wrong side of a structure, you might end up with a wasted leg. Now then, the next thing that would be particularly dangerous for this lifeform beyond fire, is that legs and vines cannot be replaced while it is set up. This results in you needing to place nodes very precisely. Also, if a marine happens to burn an offensive leg along with six spikes before you kill him off, those legs are just plain gone until you pull up shop and find a gorge to restore you.
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Well, there you go, my horribly contrived and complicated ideas. Pick them apart!
With risk to sound negative, that would confuse the living hell out of new players (me too). Unless there is some basic sense of level structure your pretty much stumbling in the darkness. Also because of this huge disadvantage (your blind and cant sense non-moving marines until they're near) there should be a big bonus in HP/damage or whatever. However doing that would make pro players tear marines apart with this creature.
It should rather be toggled by something tbh else it wont work. <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It was just a suggestion. It doesn't need to be completely dark, maybe blurry and very faint (which some leetzorz can counter by turning up gamma and brightness, right). something to give it a bad sight.
I liked the "chakra" alien when I first saw it up in Artwork; now, it's just plain leet. (sorry but it was the only word that fit) I think that it should have constant sonar, which shows it the walls around it but only for a short distance; then, its sense of smell would...well if you've ever played Zelda: Twilight Princess and been the wolf following scents you know what I'm saying. Remember the crappy "Pheromones" upgrade from version 2? THat's what the Chakra would pick up as the scents of the marines. To counter this, Marines could have a new building that would be called a sanitizer: removes the smell from a marine for one whole life.
Cost to drop: 25 res HP: 2500 AP: Hurr, buildings don't have armor! Time to use: 5 seconds Cooldown time: 30 seconds If the structure is attacked during a cleansing, the cleansing stops and is nullified (i.e. the rine is not de-scented) and the cooldown timer starts. Even if the building is not destroyed, a single hit from a skulk will disrupt it and cause the cleansing to end. So, what do you think?
its about as big as a lerk, o nvm.i post results when im done.
4 arms 2 legs,can climb walls,but not ceilings. uses bonespear and spike (you remember the lerk spike yes?)
trying to play with the idea of deafen/blinding enemies + that it also can infuse other aliens, infuse its health into a structure or another alien,so that there is finally another medic on the field than the little gorgie. but meh,not done,and im drawing on it when i get my little revelations and eurekas now and then.
it would be interesting to see a kharaa kharaa parasite
think about how a shark has that little guy that hands off it to clean him, the deadly predator co exsisting with at little parasite that lives off him he doesnt have to swim, cleans the shark and gets to feed off scrapes
same with them birds that rest on the backs of hippos, they eat the bugs and avoid death form other predators as they have a safe resting location
you cut up 80% of the words here to make a name for said creature above and orsome others mentioned
prahaps a alien parasite that can enchance other kharaa, rapidly use teh kharaa's body as a play thing, but use it to get hidden and close to said rine, basicly attaches its self to a sulk rides its body to the destination, rine kills sulk steps on its corpse parasite then infects rine
the kharaa parasite effects would enchance its strengths e.g. cant egg with parasite, so to gastate it would need to jump to another alien, gives its host a streagnth stamina boost increased inate regen, apon jumping on a rine it begins to do a DOT can force gun drops stomoch pains to cripple the host,
a interestign life this alien would have, one cos it would die if its rine host was alone and killed and the killer alien nicked off
so its life would want to keep the rine alive as long as possable but just hinder him or get him killed when there sevral rines around or a new ride to its next negative host
control over said rine would be a bad thing but stomoch pains forceing him to crouch and stop bend over or crawl in pain, lose his gun drop it on the ground in capasitations
if he types /kill leave parasite in his corpse like normal death of said rine and hope he gets a ride some time soon or gets redempted a MC ground movement would prolly be really slow and one parasite would die rapidly with out a host, chamber you could live on for a short time, stepping stones of a sort, same with infestation, it should be so small it can hide under infestation / in it, motion wouldnt detect it ether
a additonal side effect would be said infected rine cant phase paracite can hear rine orders read rine chat but can only talk in alien chat, parasited rines reguardless of server would also be susceptable to friendly fire damage if host dies corpse still stays parasite slowly dies corpse can be flame thrower toruched but it doesnt kill the parasite just speeds up its death
most effects will be passive aura like radius ones or ones that purely effect the host, kharaa side would most surely be passive and basicly just ride the carrier to the drop point
attack one could be nerv attack its a attack that sends the rine thru stages firslty the first 25% energy used or click spammed as it recharges is drop gun or hinderance the next 5% is drop gun the next 10-15% is slows movement evently if you get to low on energy this doubpled over rine would be o nteh ground haveing a comma like fit, how ever with otu the energy to sustain it keeping it in said fit stat, the exstremaly slow energy return on this creature will allow the rine to gain some control back, say the paracite starts the cycle again at 50% energy he may only have enough energy to double the rine over
if parasite has focus most stages will be skiped energy will be a tad more efficent, but you wont have the ability to spam say gun drop or movement hinder
punishment cycle resets after 2 seconds of no punishment sort of like how cloak kicks in
second ability voice com understanding and or voice chat understanding, see health dispalys of rines friendlys, current hosts HP ammo armor allows for a few good windows
third body stitch, protects the current host from friendly alien damage and or enamy friendly rine damage, rather rapid regen ni invinsability, its a fail safe so your host doesnt die in a aline ambush its a fail safe so rines dont waste you if there mate asks them to
fourth cerebral impund, parasite devours the rines brain in a 2 second window, apone doing so rine takes a gun to his own head, ends his life, the longer the two seocnd window hterine is alive hte biger the passive health bonus / over health bonus the parasite gets, over health you say remeber in quke when you pick up mega health you cant have health over 100 to after a window it begins to tick down... over health aditional effects are also energy bost and increased jump and speed range, leaveing a hosts body or enetering one requries the E key
note friendly aliens cant be killed by kharaa alien but ability 3 works on them with mass regen / ni invonrablity for a few seconds, it will also help the kharaa get close to pray for the paracite to jump ship
prahaps a sulk can even lunch em at pray basicly sulk lunches normal parasites at rine if and the moment one hits para useing the sulk as a host teleports to the new host, parasited host apon entering of its body wouldnt know it was infected unless attack one effect kick in or it happens to take damage from friendlys, hive 2 will make this guy really hard to detect if its a tracking parasite or a social like scavanger parasite
it would be a effective way to save res, as it would be cheap, life exspectancy one would hope would be pritty long a 0.75 second transition, from ride to ride will allow a fast person with reflex to see a parasite connect to where it hit and landed and if quike enough can turn and shoot said parasite killing it, but one would have to have a sharp eye and be ready for it, it would be one of the few only ways to know your infected you prolly wouldnt see it enter your own body
the other thing would be if lunched by sulk it only sticks to the target, this is interesting make it enter the target on push from the parasite as it may then deside to turn around and jump on and latch onto the rine camping turtled around the courner watching the back of said parasited rine in turn makeing camping rine incapable of defending his mate a two man rine team
dark queen only possable if this rts hybrid picks up some sort of necromancy system
basicly i figure you got a queen roughly like the denum drawn one she can be a portable hive for say 75 res, she can then take that hive locations rather rapidly be mobile have some attacks
beign a queen unlocks a build type some form of kharaa grave yard each kharaa death adds to thsi grave yard at set incriments the size of the pile of kharaa limps spikes carcusses torn open frames with pratruding skeletons grows at peak it wil lbe a un climbable tower by any other form than sulks, perchable by lurks and climbable by the dark queen a portable like kharaa hive that has the ability to recall kharaa corpses and or body parts the dark queen is bound to her grave yard for the most part the more she watches over it or visits it the strogner she gets, larger more spikes more blades more armor
starting a grave yard requires the waste of a single res nozzel dark queens can hide in side grave yards, also each grave yard the dark queen builds with have deaths and or body parts salvaged from deaths stack up untill she swings by said grave yard to collect
a single sulk death will yeld a chance of adding some or what nots bits o parts that may to of recived a lot of pyshical damage, e.g a sulk that takes a GL round to the forid will not yeld any thing salvagable. A leaping sulk takeing a shot gun round to the chest may yeld sevral limbs with spikes like attachments
in tackt jaws may offer up teeth for bullets, of a sort if a sulks body can be reserved, ono heads for armor fade arms for mroe legs speed and aditional thorn like radius damage sulk limbs are ammo for boomeranged like blades
the dark queens primary objective is to be come a tunnel filling swirling set of can it blend blades the bigge she gets the tougher she is to bring down, se recalls bacterium not ready to give up teh fight and re absorbsand restiches it to her self
exsesss bones and or wasted bits add up and stack up to be the grave yards grave yards would take a lot of damage to kill preferably fire, maybe sonic seiges cold rattle the bacterium to the core
reson it requries a res node is to limit grave yards and to keep them in the open to attrachtive area's
dark queens will merge dryder from DnD lore with denum drawing in design a alien with prahaps the HR gigger queen, her body would gather insize hte strongershe gets, she would gain more spikes more blades with each death of each type of alien
gorge death will yelds a better chance at recoveing parts from other aliens, sulks will provide ammo, lurks will provide size and static aura like passive buffs basicly salvages primal scream glands and spore glands and consistantly has a DOT could around her and a huge passive scream that note only gives away her positon but leaves her as the flag barer and the war brumer to spear head assults, the more ono deaths the stronger and more armor / armor absorbtion, the more fades the faster and more damage she deals
her attacks are mostly offensive except she does take damage when not burrowed in her grave yard
the sucess of the grave yard protecting her exsists on how much the grave yard has been feed at first its will be a scatered pile no more than knee hight after about 30 deaths or up to 60 deaths it could cover a ducked dark queen gorges would also beable to hide in a dark queen nest prahaps build on some of its ledges
attack one "puray" yes its a blender option, turn things to liquid, remeber in teh labrinth when the tunnel cleaner coems by a twisting mess of blades, she preforms a action similar to the fades metabalise but with a much more faster rapid agressive full spikes out look about it deaing huge and increaseing amounts of damage to any thing in the front 180 arch
with say focus it be come more of a grinder basicly dealing huge wads of damage in huge ticks so burst damage vs consistant flow
attack two will be unleash dark queen will begin to off load body parts and ammo types, at first they will consume energy but after energy which wotn last long they consume body parts and her over all staying damage and malee thorns damage will drop, but a chian gun of sulks teeth and sulk feet spikes lodgeing it no walls around rines and nailing them to there back drop liek the bolter in fear will make just about any one run a patern of ammo tyeps will work its self out depedant on ammo type if there more sulk teeth it will resemble more like a HMG if there only a few sulk feet spikes occationaly a bolter like spike will shoot off if it lands will deal additonal damage, boomerang like fade arms may fire out as well depending on the codeing avaliable and time spent it might just be as simple as consumeing energy to to fire off a set rate of projectile types 5 teeht 2 spikes 5 teeth two spikes one boomerang fade claw
third attack would be a sort of forward spike body thrust leap just a wall of spike hurdaling towards you, it would enduce rage doll effect knocking rines on there backs or front and impaleing them with spikes from the carapace like limbs the more limbs the merryer
4th attack a offensive escape self distruct, like a pipe bomb fileld with naisl and other forms of shrapnel she will clear afreashly beconed room of rine in as instant rounds the penertrate and staple corpse to walls, dark queen will teleport out like redemption apon excution and to do said move she will require 50% or more energy, in this order she wil lTP out to clsoest her grave yard, to closest friendly grave yard if she has no grave yards, to closest hive not under attack to closest hive under attack, no hives sorry no TP out, cant tp to other queens
a dark queen would work like this in res cost, 75% res to become a mobile hive with support attacks, see other various queen threads 20% rez to become a dark queen, 5% to drop a grave yard
so if a single alien res limit is 200 150 res to become queen 40 to become dark and 10 to drop a grave yard you hope will grow
i mean this thig is nasty it has streaghs an weaknesses, hopefully it up sides will allow for one or two a map consumeing maybe 3-4 res nodes any more than that i can garrentee aliens will get ###### as it doesnt allow for building on said res node unless GY is destroyed
dark queens are five times faster than normal queens and mvoe as fast as a onos chargeing... "yeah now i bet your ###### your pants""i know i would at being a vanilla marine stairing at a ebing twisting wall of black exstreamly sharp blades"
i dont like the name chakra i hear it too much in naruto <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/nerd-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="::nerdy::" border="0" alt="nerd-fix.gif" /> <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
anyway we need 2 aliens: a higher lifeform and a lower lifeform
for the lower lifeform i suggest; a sort of jellyfish, except instead of stingers it has 4 legs like the skulks, and is about the hight of skulk. it can also run on walls like a skulk (i find it odd that the most basic lifeform has an ability the others dont) it would move as fast as a gorge but it cannot jump! instead it would walk on the walls and stuff. its attacks would be comoflauge and predatorial stuff. it would cost 30 res so its a choice between a mobile or a stealth. it is a defensive alien! zomg no way
-attack 1a; swipe- only used when standing, it does an upward sweep of all its 2 of its claws (the front) and cuts marines
-attack 1b; lash- only used when hidden (next attack) all of its claws shoot upward and outward to do an AOE attack that deals quite a bit of damage
-attack 2; burrow- it digs itself into the ground and flattens its body, as well as gain high transparency (or camoflaugh (can only be seen if the marines is face to the screen looking for him) about 95%. it gains a web effect if a marine steps on it, and lasts until the alien is dead or the marine gets off. at this point the attack 1 switches to attack 1b. it can also burrow onto walls and roofs, blocking the web effect but making for more usefull spots with less visability. alien cannot unburrow with a marine on its head. the claws of the alien arent invisable and the body stays invisable during attacks. cloacking only effects the legs
attack 3; parasite (passive)- upon the 3rd hive all attacks that the alien does causes a parasite *cough BECAUSE NOBODY USES PARASITE AFTER 2 ND HIVE AND ITS ANOYING IDK IF WE HAVE SENSORY ATM <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":angry:" border="0" alt="mad-fix.gif" /> cough* <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
attack 4; snare- does the tounge effect of the barnacles like in HL2 cept looks like webs so that way the JPs have a new enemy (cuz if they resemble jp in NS3.2 then they need enemies)
i dont have any ideas for a higher lifeform but we need a tank with support attacks!! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
Well, I was thinking that perhaps bodies of water would be important to NS2. Perhaps boats could be constructed by marines, several different strengths, etc...and then we could have an aquatic alien: deadly in the water, crappy outside of it...Anyways, this would basically look like a small, underwater dragon without wings.
The only name I could think of was Leviathan...but it's fitting.
+150% movement in the water, slow on land. High HP, about 350...100-ish armor Tech 1: slash: The leviathan uses its claws to slash marines. Duh. Damage: 80. Low adrenaline cost. Tech 2: Charge: (In the water only) speeds your movement up for several seconds. Medium adrenaline cost. Tech 3: Latch: The leviathan grasps a marine in the water in its jaws, and drags it away. Similar to devour, but no damage is taken other than the initial damage. The idea is to drown the marine. Damage: 50 High adrenaline cost. Tech 4: Capsize: If aimed properly from the right angle, tips a small boat over and dumps the marines into the water. Uses ALL adrenaline, deals no damage to the marines.
I have several ideas that I have been putting on the burner for a while now, I'll start of with ideas for making <b>variations</b> within the current set of life forms that we have now.
<b>Variation One: FOV/Field of View Changes</b>
To spice things up, we change the way how the alien life forms perceive the world around them.
<b>Skulk FOV changes:</b> For example, the skulks could have a larger FOV, seeing how the eyes are on the sides of their heads. If anyone's played the original Alien Versus Predator game as the Alien life form, you'd see what I mean. With a larger and fuzzier field of view, this could entice people to play the game when they see something genuinely different and interesting.
Also, the idea of changing the FOV and HUDs could be tied into the development of a new alien life form that sense movement, smells, injuries, etc, and acts more of an intelligence/recon/spy type unit than a brute melee type unit. Since the earlier post about the evolutionary tree and natural selection and evolution of lifeforms in competition should go, I thought that it might be fitting to take a look at the evolution of our current systems of warfare.
For example, throught history, we have always been developing bigger, deadlier weapons to combat our enemies. First it was the club, then it was the spear. Then it was the mace, then it was the sword. And to compliment them, the buckler, shield, leather armour, padded felt armour, plate armour. Then from their, ranged weapons - bows, arrows, crossbows. Then from there, armour that was resistant to armour piercing crossbows. Then we developed gunpowder, Cannons, pure fire undoing stone. Then we developed Kevlar to resist gun pellets. Then we developed armour piercing rounds. Then we developed bombs, then nukes to wipe out enemies from afar.
-Slight Divergence-
As a divergent from what I'm saying, I think marines should still keep their monopoly on ranged weapons, but bring back lerk spikes or give the kharaa some ranged weapons, albeit not as harmful or potent, to give the kharaa more of a hit-and-run feeling to it. Also, I vote we should bring back nukes, if it hasn't been decided already (Sorry, I've been away for a while, haven't been up to date on developments), but in a way that doesn't make them unbalanced.
-Divergence Ended-
Anyway, my point is, we have reached the point where information warfare is MUCH, <b>MUCH</b> more important than physical warfare. Look at recent examples of wars and conflicts - Much of the victory was won when the parties involved in the battles and conflicts were able to knock out their opponents information and intel sources. Radar jamming, EMP, hacking into computer systems, disabling power and water grids, disrupting weapon, ammo, and vital health supplies, etc.
So I propose that NS2 follows this route as well, that is, if the devs feel like it, as it's their game and its entirely up to them <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
Anyway, was brainstorming a creature with the following details:
<b>Name:</b> Aether Leech
<b>Background Description:</b> The Aether Leech is unlike anything the TSA has ever seen or encountered with the Kharaa. We thought that the Onos was the final end of the evolutionary ladder for the kharaa, with the Species' intelligence gathering capabilities already satisfied with their sensory chambers and parasitic entities from their notorious skulks. However, it seems that this is not the case. They have seem to developed another life form to combat our increased surveillance, to act as counter-intelligence, and to serve as intelligence gathering agents and recon units themselves.
They were first discovered at the Arcuton Geo-Physical Research Centre in SU-6840, on the 2nd moon of the 4th planet in the system, not too far from the main fighting between the main TSA forces and the Kharaa. The Arcuton Research Facility was involved in heavy top secret intelligence and counter intelligence projects on behalf of the TSA in their efforts to combat the Kharaa menace, when it suddenly came under attack from a horde of Skulks. They quickly overcame a third of the facility, and would've consumed the entire centre, were it not for the heroic efforts of the marines stationed there, and for the reinforcements that soon arrived. How the Kharaa came to be aware of the importance of the projects going on at Arcuton, we are not yet sure. Or it could've been a random target. However, what happened next was most frightening.
The marines, after days of fighting against the Kharaa, with heavy losses sustained by both sides, were poised to reach the final hive and end the Kharaa menace. Until suddenly, the main unit advancing on the Hive lost all radio contact with the base. From what we have been able to piece together, their radio communications were jammed.
At 1456 hundred hours on day 5 at the main marine base, telecommunications and radio contact with the main forward unit was lost. The commander and marines reported that they had lost motion tracking of the aliens in the facility. Which was nigh impossible! As there was no method of the Kharaa circumventing the TSA's motion tracking technology without standing still. Soon after, the commander yelled in terror. The main forward unit were requesting Medical Health Packs and Catalysts, the commander tried to provide them to the unit, but was unable to - the interface simply wouldn't allow him to provide the unit with their needed supplies. The commander watched in horror as the unit was mauled down by 3 Fades and a contingent of Skulks - in darkness. The commander's display of the section where the marines were suddenly became black. With only the light beams of the marines torches and their muzzle flashes illuminating the surrounding chaos.
Seconds later, all equipment at the marines' based ceased to function. Following which, an artificial darkness encircled the base. The last flurry of activity was inside the Command Console where the base commander filed an emergency report and gathered all the data on the battle and fired a burst transmission back to the main TSA base in the region. A few seconds later, the base fell dead silent.
<b>Monster Description:</b>
Hit Points: 150 Armour: 0
The Aether Leech is similar to a jelly fish of our native Earth. The top "dome" is the same as a sensory chamber, and there are a mass of feelers extending from underneath it. The Aether Leech can't see directly, it's HUD is entirely dark. Except it can detect movement with the aid of hive sight and Scent of Fear. Otherwise, it has to be lead around the map by another of the Kharaa sub-species.
<b>Ability Description:</b>
<b>Ability 1:</b> Disruption Field
Description: This ability temporarily disrupts the intelligence gathering and motion tracking activities of the TSA in a small radius. Kharaa that would otherwise appear on the a TSA Marine's would be shielded, when in the vicinity of the Aether Leech and it utilizes this ability. This can be countered with the Observatory's Scan ability.
<b>Ability 2:</b> Cloaking Field
Description: Similar to the Disruption Field, but upgraded. Cloaks Kharaa in the nearby vicinity of the Aether Leech in a cloaking field. Can be dispelled with scan. The field is has a MUCH shorter range
<b>Ability 3:</b> Infestation Field
Description: This ability prevents the base commander from dropping supplies in the nearby radius of the area in which and when the Aether Leech activates this ability. This is somewhat haphazard for the Aether Leech, as it is frail, and has to be approach the contingent of marines to make this ability effective. Small to Medium Radius.
<b>Ability 4:</b> Creeping Darkness
Description: The most powerful of the Aether Leech's powers. Once activated, this ability surrounds the entire area in an artificial darkness which cannot currently be dispelled by any known means. Marines can see through this only through short distances with the aid of their flashlights and muzzle flashes. Kharaa can see through the darkness perfectly with their hive sight.
firstly i would like to clear up a FEW things on HUD and FOV manipulation
yes AVP used a sighly bigger FOV also the camera view placement on the alien was further foward in the avatar
secondly you can already increase your FOV in NS, how ever i dont recommend it, i bleive AV alien used a a illusion in the HUD to coutner the motion skikenss the human body exsperiances when looking at a monitar with a FOV of 90 + 120 is about its limits, 180 will make you vomit or feel really sic with in minutes and any thing above 180 not only messes with the screen to much, yes you can see all around you no one can sneak up on you, but you lose the ability to target
feel free to chuck SV_cheat 1 on and adjust your FOV i think there area a few settings you want to play with i dont know them off hand, but i was dared to do this a while ago in a thread on these forums i had a crack at it i thought i could handle it at first it seamed fine suddenly after the 7 ish minute period i became very ill to the stomoch and basicly staggered / crawled away from the computer my eyes very heavy
there are peopel that play with increased FOV's but i bleive they would train there selves to do so, in other words increase the fov distance 2 notches every few weeks
its a nice idea but can be very nausiating, if any one has the commends i would love to go back and have another crack at it just for another buzz
Holy Crap.............this was like reading a novel. I would like to see a few of these ideas come to fruition and some dumped in the alley...big read and good ideas ............me likey!
Similar smaller lifeforms alike Skulk should maintain the "S" or "Sk" or "Sc" in the name <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
<u><b>Scoutling</b></u> (my favorite name)
Overall: A very small 5res lifeform. Capable of providing hivesight "Scent of Fear"-lvl2 to fellow creatures of the kharaa. Main job would be to spy on the TSA's progress with stealthy approach. Does lighter and very quiet "tick" sounds.
Has cloak lvl1 BUT not the invisibility(!) Instead, it should allow the Scoutling to move into OBS scanned perimeters. Thus not appearing on motiontracking unless the Scoutling has suffered dmg recently.
Scoutling should have the ability to "leech" res from marine RT nodes. The Scoutling would have a pool of (0/7) to fill and can return it to a gorge or hive by +USE command (that "e" key).
Cons: Cannot gestate into Gorge immediately and requires longer time to re-gestate into skulk.
Work-in-progress idea <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
<u><b>Scavenger</b></u>
This lifeform should generally focus primarily on harvesting res for the kharaa. It should have weak to no defenses and should be able to share res alike mentioned above in the "leech" idea.
The Scavenger should be able to gather for example the GEAR of fallen marines, their rifles, ammo and beamed-in-too-late medpacks to fill their (0/25) respool reserve to share to gorges or the complete team.
Work-in-progress
=A lifeform between Lerk and Fade, 35-40res.=
<u><b>Whipper</b></u>
Imagine the Alien Xenomorph's tail, only that a Kharaa lifeform would have four or five.
This idea is a bit far-fetched.
Able to Wall-stick (not wall-walk) Able to "plunge ahead", a type of leap or blink, yet slower and does not cost energy.
Offensive Basic ability: Direct and precise tail whip/sting (remember AVP) Costs low energy
Hive1 ability: Can use its tails as an extended swipe. Swings tails viciously to wreck havoc. Can deal severe dmg over a short time by swinging tails several over the frontal arc.
Moderate to high energy costs
Hive2 ability: Can deliver several swings at once causing Area of Effect melee damage. Mutilple swings allows it to take on a small group of marines. Requires high amount of energy. Causes either knockback or major desoritation (major FOV wobble like in TFC, the concussion grenades -that cause your aim to go sloppy) Should be used for hit and run.
Should require a lot of energy. The whipper needs to escape with its +MOVEMENT ability.
Hive3 ability: Tail embrace. Can "capture" one marine or heavy armor.
Once the victim has been captured, the whipper is unable to attack other units. Primary use is to take the victim to fellow Kharaa players and have them attack the victim. Embrace requires energy-over-time. Once depleted, the victim is free.
----
These are just idea floating in my head. Maybe brainfarts <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
Posted a pic in the artwork section. Nothing special really <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
name meaning - One of the seven centers of spiritual energy in the human body according to yoga philosophy.
about this alien
a level up from the onos this creature only appears when all three hives are alive and thriving. The chakra has 4 jaws which make it able to capture and hold its prey. the creature itself is blind and uses a sonar type ability like the bat to see around, it is extremely sensitive to motion and can find enemies through walls.
the chakra is an extremely mobile creature, due to its serious damage it causes and its fast speed it lacks in armour. Unlike the onos it requires on being able to damage as much as possible before dying, this creature is an elite new species which evolved and relied on all three hives to be up to be born. Its great strength and speed comes from the energy of the hives.
It is a very smart creature and has been known to sense the actions of its enemies and dodging their movements and giving a very accurate blow. When angered or near death the creature goes into a rage state where it charges and attacks everything around it in a desperate act to defeat its enemies.
abilities-
1- Ravage powerful bite attack, more powerful than the onos bite with focus.
2- Poison sting the tentacles in the chakras mouth are toxic and when lashed out cause a target to be poisoned and temporarily shocked in place for 5 or so seconds 3- devour much like the onos the chakra pulls prey into its mouth and devours it, devouring however is much faster than an onoses due to the high andrenaline of this creature
3 alternative- Slash the head lashes out causing a very powerful bite which rips at the target causing them to bleed heavily over 10 seconds. 4- Oblicerate causes the chakra to go into an furious state where vision changes to make all enemy targets bright red, while under this state you cause considerable damage to everything around you while attacking anything that hits you will be damaged and while using ravage while in this state will cause extra damage to be taken by up to 4 enemies which come into contact with your body, you need to keep holding down (much like blink and charge) to keep this effect. large amounts of energy is required for this attack. <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
i am adding a qoute of youre post to this topic <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?s=8864538995092401152&act=st&f=84&t=100079&st=0#entry1600407" target="_blank">here</a>
I want to spread the idea of a sort of Controller like Kharra form.
A 15 or 20 res creature, it would be a six legged spider creature which is slightly bigger than a Skulk but can fit inside vents and can walk on walls and ceilings. It is weak and does not move as fast as the Skulk, but it carries 5 to 8 little bat creatures on its underside. Its primary function is to sit in wait for advancing Marines.
It relies on its minions to attack. The main attack spits pheromones, which the bats swarm to and remain at for a few seconds; during this time the Spider cannot move, and can only spit more pheromones. If any Marines are near or hit by the Pheromones the bats will swarm them.
Marines can kill the bats, but the best way to defend against them is to either run or kill the weak spider host creature. With one hive the Spider can use 1/2 energy ro regenerate a bat, with 2 hives the spider gains a needle attack which damages Marines over range, and with 3 hives the Spider can bite Marines with a poison that does 10 direct health damage per second and can only be healed at an Armory (look out Heavies).
The other unique thing is that Spiders get a sort of Sonar vision; pulses are sent out every second for 25 feet or so, highlighting terrain or enemies. This requires those who use the Spider to be skilled in compensating for the "strobe" effect, but also allows them to see through walls and recon for the rest of the Aliens.
And the Spider can also roll around quickly on the ground while holding the Jump button.
<!--quoteo(post=1600693:date=Jan 21 2007, 03:58 PM:name=Zerohourrct)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Zerohourrct @ Jan 21 2007, 03:58 PM) [snapback]1600693[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> I want to spread the idea of a sort of Controller like Kharra form.
A 15 or 20 res creature, it would be a six legged spider creature which is slightly bigger than a Skulk but can fit inside vents and can walk on walls and ceilings. It is weak and does not move as fast as the Skulk, but it carries 5 to 8 little bat creatures on its underside. Its primary function is to sit in wait for advancing Marines.
It relies on its minions to attack. The main attack spits pheromones, which the bats swarm to and remain at for a few seconds; during this time the Spider cannot move, and can only spit more pheromones. If any Marines are near or hit by the Pheromones the bats will swarm them.
Marines can kill the bats, but the best way to defend against them is to either run or kill the weak spider host creature. With one hive the Spider can use 1/2 energy ro regenerate a bat, with 2 hives the spider gains a needle attack which damages Marines over range, and with 3 hives the Spider can bite Marines with a poison that does 10 direct health damage per second and can only be healed at an Armory (look out Heavies).
The other unique thing is that Spiders get a sort of Sonar vision; pulses are sent out every second for 25 feet or so, highlighting terrain or enemies. This requires those who use the Spider to be skilled in compensating for the "strobe" effect, but also allows them to see through walls and recon for the rest of the Aliens.
And the Spider can also roll around quickly on the ground while holding the Jump button. <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I think the primary attack could be more like a worm like thing that would automatically start going around the map attacking marines and if the marines are hit they will be parasited, could be small worm like things with small fade claws at the front and sharp teeth <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" /> (ripoff from Wh40k), while they are being fired it would open up a comm like view to the alien so it could guide them to the right direction and at any times could stop commanding them but at which point they would be destroyed in say 20-30seconds while crawling around helplessly. Would be 1hive = 2 parasites, 2 hives 3parasites and 3 hives 4 parasites
<!--quoteo(post=1600693:date=Jan 21 2007, 08:58 PM:name=Zerohourrct)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Zerohourrct @ Jan 21 2007, 08:58 PM) [snapback]1600693[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> I want to spread the idea of a sort of Controller like Kharra form.
A 15 or 20 res creature, it would be a six legged spider creature which is slightly bigger than a Skulk but can fit inside vents and can walk on walls and ceilings. It is weak and does not move as fast as the Skulk, but it carries 5 to 8 little bat creatures on its underside. Its primary function is to sit in wait for advancing Marines.
It relies on its minions to attack. The main attack spits pheromones, which the bats swarm to and remain at for a few seconds; during this time the Spider cannot move, and can only spit more pheromones. If any Marines are near or hit by the Pheromones the bats will swarm them.
Marines can kill the bats, but the best way to defend against them is to either run or kill the weak spider host creature. With one hive the Spider can use 1/2 energy ro regenerate a bat, with 2 hives the spider gains a needle attack which damages Marines over range, and with 3 hives the Spider can bite Marines with a poison that does 10 direct health damage per second and can only be healed at an Armory (look out Heavies).
The other unique thing is that Spiders get a sort of Sonar vision; pulses are sent out every second for 25 feet or so, highlighting terrain or enemies. This requires those who use the Spider to be skilled in compensating for the "strobe" effect, but also allows them to see through walls and recon for the rest of the Aliens.
And the Spider can also roll around quickly on the ground while holding the Jump button. <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
why would a spider produce bats?
if it looks and behaves like a spider, you should make it so that it spreads webs instead of the gorge, and that it spawns a brood of baby spiders, not bats.... also maybe give it a poison bite attack, or the ability to use the webs to spin a cocoon around a marine, like in lord of the rings...
it would be cool to enter a room and see webs everywhere, and in the corner a huge spiders web with a big, black arachnid sitting in the middle of it, and then you realize the small baby spiders crawling on the walls and floor towards you.....
your idea sounds really good and i like how you have thought through how the spider would regenerate the "bats"...
it just needs a bit of tweaking, to make it look more real and make it more believable.
well NEX has pretty good ideas. I think the main question in NS2 is to be indoor or outdoor. Both of the game modes are unable to work out. These are so different modes, that cut the whole community into two groups.
The outdoor mode needs a huge amount of players. Just be creative. If you start to count, it's about ~30(15vs15) players, that's neccesary. It's too much i think. But the indoor gamemode doesnt require so many palyers, just 12-14 like NS.
About new lifeforms: i ve been thinking of a new flying creature since i've first played with NS. It's a fly like monster, with a buzzy noise, and i has got huge eyes. So just like a fly.
Actually, i don't want to creat the msot powerful, hardcore, awesome, invulnerable creature that slays the rines, like pigs. No it's about keepings the marines busy. Health:150 Armor:50(because of the cithin armor) Speed: 85-90% of the lerks speed.
It doesn't cost energy to fly, like flies seems to never be tired in normal life. But it has abilities, that costs lots of energy. And one of the msot important things is to silence(or something liek that in NS2) doesnt effects totally on this. So it has a buzzy sound everytime, maybe not as loud as normally.
It'd be able to stack on the walls. But its pretty difficult. It'd be really annoying, when you are flying throught the marines, and you stack on the ceiling, cuz you accidentally hit it. Maye, you could stack by "use" or sth. It about to be figured out.
1)Illusion: It has an illusion attack. It looks like, it multiplys itself, but there is only one real. im thinking of 2 fake creatures near the normal, but its important to the real isn't in the center all the time. Cuz it can as big as you wish, the pro players can aim on the middle anytime.
2)Parasite: I thinks every one has already thought about that, parasite shouldn't belong to skulks. I think parasite matches better with a fly, than a dog-like alien. But i have some changes. If it parasites someone, that rine starts to emit a poisonous gase, in a small area, BUT it doesn't kill him(and also, it'll be shown on the alien screen, like parasite in NS). Like a virus host(or maybe only damage 2 health/sec). So if our cute little fly infects all fo the rines, it doesn't make any sense, cuz noone will be hurt. It can increase the tactical fractor of the game, pretty much. Parasite hit: 20 dmg Cloud range: 50-75% of the lerk spore(depends on to be balanced) Cloud damage: 7 health/sec
3)Bile bomb vol.2:)(if you can tell me a good name, don't eschew.) So it looks like an egg, almost as big as the creature. But it's not as easy to throw it into the middle of the rine group. It's very delicate, if you throw it from far distance, it breaks, and i's going to look like more an omlett than a weapon:D. So you have to be careful with it. I think it could damage the marines, and it'd be useless against structures, but it could be on the contrary. Range:It's about to be figured ot, depends on the balance Damage: -||-
4)Cloak: now it's a strange attack, but i think very useful. Our cute little fly starts to buzzz like hell, and it's going to be invisible, but it's stacked on the wall, and cant move. I mean, if it moves, the cloak disappears. It'd be easy to locate where is it for a pro player with good ears. There could be an echoes effect near the creature, that makes more difficult to locate. Oh, and of course, if it's shot then the cloak disappear. It costs lots of energy, but it can "deaf" the rines, and this way, it can help the skulk to lurk.(You can lough at me, but i got the idea from a PowerPuffGirls episode <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/nerd-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="::nerdy::" border="0" alt="nerd-fix.gif" /> <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" /> )
I like the idea of an alien that just keeps the marines busy, but I personally would take a different approach to it....
Illusion is pretty useless, especially vs. fairly-long range shotgun, GL, or anything like that. Instead, how about an attack that's long range, does little damage, and costs little energy? Perhaps it could have low recharge time as well. That seems more annoying. Flight is already good enough to avoid stuff.
Parasite is very annoying, at least I think it is. Keep that on there.
The bile bomb could be a type of acid that only corrodes marine armor. Another great way to annoy, would make them have to re-weld each other. Maybe you would have to drop it while flying?
I don't like the cloak, considering it's a normal upgrade. Perhaps something that makes marines deaf for a few seconds, like make the marines hear that noise when you're too close to a grenade that explodes? Or perhaps even a flash-bang type effect. Either or.
Now I think THAT would be an annoying thing to keep the marines busy.
For the Chakra (change the name for god sakes), the environment could be like a topographical map, with white stripes showing the contours of the map, and with people making sounds appearing to illuminate the areas around them with more illumination towards how the sounds would travel. (so a bunch of marines in a room would appear to make the doorway glow more than it should). ---------------------------------------------------------------- New alien:
Recononsaur! (I don't know, make something up!) (Promethius: Future sight? Methius: Sight?)
Would be a small alien, about the size of a gorge. It'd be blind, using the system I described above to see (a minor advantage). Fairly skulk shaped, but rounded with a armadillo like back. Fairly weak, decent speed, able to climb walls (maybe).
--------------------- Attacks:
Nibbling Parasite: does more damage than reg. parasite, tracks the person, and also causes constant damage.
Bacterial Spray: Heal spray like, but instead it disables Marine buildings for a short period, and maybe immobilizing Heavies for a brief period and preventing jetpackers from jetpacking. Could hang like a cloud for a little bit.
Psionic Wave: Its been suggested before. Acts like the alien's form of a scan, could even use same graphics (floor sweep) except orange.
Psionic Pulse: Causes you to glow for a second before the pulse is released. Wide area effect. It disables the marine's equipement, turns all fired grenades(maybe) and mines into duds; temporarily causes lighting to flicker (probably outside source's capabilites); causes all buildings in radius to shutdown for a while (except armories, however they are slowed (have to dig into the thing to get the reserve ammo)); disorients marines (think conc. gren. from TFC); darkens or clears commander sight in area (makes it eratic/fuzzy?); depletes all your energy; saps a little bit of your health, increasing each time you use it until it instant kills you; ----------------- "Its like the knew we were coming, like they had some sort of bloody promethius!" ---------------------------------------------------------
I know the Psionic Pulse is really really freaking powerful, its sort of a compensation for having such a sucky creature.
i just found this image, and thought it looked sorta like a kharaa, and since i cant draw for crap and this little guy pretty much looks like the alien i had in mind, it will have to do. basicially a big gecko/lizard thing smaller than a skulk, that clings to walls like glue, and can also cling onto marines by sinking in its talons, and bite them on which ever body part you've clinged onto. but make it extremely agile so it can pounce off a wall onto a marines chest, get a few bites in, then jump away extremely quickly. make it something that will be good at patrolling the corridors quickly and stealthly. an alien designed for ambushes, not frontal assaults. i'd love to see a long tail trailing its movement.
maybe it could also have a super amazing run-on-water ability like in the photo? ahahaha
<!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->either way, the only new thing i really want to do as an alien in NS2 is grab a marine and gnaw his face off. <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
Perhaps an alien that has acid weld for doors? or an alien that with three hives does a body snatcher! head crab thing? perhaps he only can take over the, arms or the legs depending where he strikes lol.
I like a dark lord alien. This alien who can project phantoms, false walls, false aliens etc he is a one hive guy. <img src="http://www.flyingislands.co.uk/gallery2/d/43-2/speedpic_ugly.jpg" border="0" alt="IPB Image" /> not my art.
or the builder unit can drag Rhine's body's back to be recycled for a shadow rine, looks smiler from a distance, however legs bend backwards and he can jump freakish distances. <img src="http://www.xprojectmagazine.com/bohemian/art/gyp/alien_gyp.jpg" border="0" alt="IPB Image" />
We have hardly touched decompression, acid through walls to make new openings!
However what we really need is physics, cut off a Rhine head and toss it at them "does damage" toss a body at some Rhine's does damage, stack Rhine body's to make fort etc. Games are about bragging rights what better brag than i won by impaling him with his own rib!!!
Also Rhine tosses a grenade at his fallen buddies bits go every ware and they do damage!
<!--quoteo(post=1606101:date=Feb 13 2007, 03:46 PM:name=Seppaku)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Seppaku @ Feb 13 2007, 03:46 PM) [snapback]1606101[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> stack Rhine body's to make fort etc. <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
ahahaha! i want my gorgy to build a corpse fort with oc turrets <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/pudgy.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="::gorge::" border="0" alt="pudgy.gif" />
Comments
I don't like the Chakra idea, it's kinda cheap...
I loved the 'sonic' type alien that could roll around.
Anyways, here's my idea. How about an alien that makes use of the glorious gravity gun type weapon? also known as telekinesis with organic aliens. Here's what it could do:
With 1 hive, it could only pick up small objects, at level 2 it could pick up larger ones, and at level 3 it could pick up marines, but it does NOT kill them in one hit. It only deals damage when they hit something, and the marines could still fire back at the alien. It would be a slow alien, only moderate HP, slightly lower than a fade. The alien could 'launch' the marine it is carrying, much like the gravity gun, and knock other marines down, or just deal extra damage. However, the amount of adrenaline to do this would be huge. Here are the techniques:
1. weak telekinesis - picks up small objects
2. telekinetic wave - pings marines on the map, kinda like parasite, for a short time.
3. telekinesis - picks up larger objects, takes more adrenaline.
4. strong telekinesis - able to pick up marines. Takes extremely high adrenaline per second, more than charge. Shooting a marine takes at least 3/4 of the alien's max adrenaline.
EDIT: instead of the telekinetic wave, how about an ability where it raised a shield that blocked bullets? (Not explosives)
<i>The 'real' Kharaa, the bacteria, evolves and produces the infestation.
The humans fight the infestation.
The infestation evolves further, and produces a Hive.
The humans fight the Hive.
The Hive evolves further, and starts producing Skulks to counter-attack the humans.
The humans multiply.
Some of the Skulks evolve to Gorges via natural selection to build defences.
The humans get ways of getting around faster (jetpacks, phasegates)
Some of the aliens evolve to Lerks via natural selection.
The humans evolve stronger weaponry and new armor.
Some of the aliens evolve to Fades in response to this.
The humans evolve EVEN STRONGER weaponry and very hard armors.
The aliens evolve even further down the path of physical strength and the Onos is born.</i>
To me, it would seem that the Kharaa are nearing the end of this line of natural selection. Their physical strength is already at it's highest peak.
As for their mental strength, I believe they are already on a very high level, but quite differently from humans. Instead of having single minds, they have a common "hive mind". All the Kharaa are linked together via the Hive, and if the Kharaa evolved further down the intellctual path, it would mean the Hive is rendered useless.
Personally I believe this is a too radical turn in the process of natural selection, and should be discarded.
I think, that if we are to figure out the next possible step in the evolutionary process of the Kharaa, we'll need some more information on what the humans have up their sleeves.
To me, it would seem that all the evolutionary stages the Kharaa have are all responses to the actions of humans.
That makes for a cool idea (The Chakra) You said its blind and senses movement. What if aliens in NS2 had could have different view modes? If you evolve Chakra, you're sight is more sonar, the world is darker and you can barely SEE things, but if it moves it becomes visable. This way you could make the alien a strong one, almost like an onos, but he is handicapped when a marine doesn't move. Almost like the T-REX theory of vision. That would be cool.
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Maybe "Berserker" (sounds dangerous) is a better name O:, just like in Gears of War. The thing is blind, but it senses smell and sound. I mean, if a person was to be a berserker (or chakra) you would see concentric rings kinda like the ripple effect when you throw a stone in the water to help you out where the enemies are. Your screen would be pretty much black with these blue rings all over the place (should be a way to only detect enemy noise to avoid confusion). Obviously, since this is a disadvantage, it is compensated by the considerable amount of damage that it does. But then again, it abilities can be countered by walking only if your far enough away. Since it can also smell, a walking marine within range would show up kinda like scent of fear. I guess, i took a lot of it from DareDevil the movie, but hey it works.
but ns2 is the war it could be out side larger area's rens have tanks, they have mounted AA guns for air def, they have osalating remote vulcons tsa style modifyed riped strait out of the classic A 10 desing
they have leapard tanks fited with A retractable harvest Scythe on the side for riping mini low lvl khara chambers to peices
they have chrano APC's fited with phase tech to bail out and get back to base if need be, note it doesnt phase back parasited rines due to there infection
they have a radical two - 3 man jet chopper hybrid with vertigo, with insectaside side winders and a tail vonrable to a kharaa tallon like alien
this is bug eradication people if you can figure a way to attach a giant fly swatter to the hull of a space ship, and not have it negatively effect the ships usful ness DO SO
you bring in a flame thrower a few types of tanks larger manned base defense and air assult, cuplled with new types of phase tech
phase gun... siarra PORTALS?, rine holds down triger longer they hold down further they portal, you can portal thro walls but if you portal to far you gib in the wall
we are not talking about 3 hives i na clostraphobic enviroment here people, we are talking about clutered thick jungle or rock arid canyons
multiple hives, res farms with up to 6 nodes in each farm
main high ways of the map semi open with side line cover, res of the map clostraphobic cover, maps large enough cycleing enough they are ny impossable to learn all of to exstend the life span of play
so aliens need tunnels something needs to dig them, if there water kharaa need to adapt to it
SC?, yeah kharaa have SC's, gorges build them, gorges can even combine res to make huge floating zeplins like overlords that can move around at a low - medium speed and shower down a cloaking feild, said zeplin can adjust its high a bit and also has enough landing area
you think rines have scan any more, sure they do, but for out sdie they can call a strike in for a slight delay and prahaps a cool down striek comes in atmospheric balistic is lunched breaks up at about 1,000 feet and the spread of cluster scaner, a spread that always changes not like the shot gun spread but always changes and as each cluster hits the ground many mini pings fire off, and last for about 30 seconds
seige gun? sure shy not also ion seige gun can put a hive on near death for a 15 minute cool down and a 10 second warm up time
thats ok most hives can moved slightly enough if a gorge or a queen is intentive enough
sorry queen, how about dark queen, she lords over kharaa grave yards obsorbing and reataching giblets and fragments of kharaa bacterium not ready to give up the fight, any number of spike claws carapace she could have on her, the more kharaa that die the stronger she gets
come on people stab your self in the head and leak out some creative juices
tottal forget every thing from ns one and use it all as a back drop a story line and as a itty bitty singular puzzle peice, that could make up a infinaite ever changeing larger picture puzzle
OC yep but place it near a solid object or in a area harvest tanks can mow it down, why not place it on one or two of the set or unset placements on the samarta shoot, a huge tree like vine that mario could climb each overly large leaf like plate form can house a OC to increase the plants range ROF potency and projectile amount
how do you stop a harvester tank? berrie it, ether with a spice wyrum, or a punji like bacterium pit fall trap
come on weapon 4 on all normal life forms we have now is going to be easyly obtainable, think of the res flow in seige maps
think of up to 20 diff hives if you so desire to, think of new weapon types and or new ways to unlock them, new buildings coming out of combined gorge res buildings the size of ready rooms a star craft queens nest but with many many lvls and port hole heaps of tiny sulk like tunneling net works
you drop one of them with 20 meters on ether side of it thru a canyon and ill garentee no rines will be brave enough to try and sneak past it
Taerang
Pherzt
Ygg
Cheropt
Qerm
Unick
Daze
Frill
Snaerk
Horus
Horst
Meggom
Qmon
Titom
Dunkel
Viscous
Intrus
Ravage
Pierce
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Maybe "Berserker" (sounds dangerous) is a better name O:, just like in Gears of War. The thing is blind, but it senses smell and sound. I mean, if a person was to be a berserker (or chakra) you would see concentric rings kinda like the ripple effect when you throw a stone in the water to help you out where the enemies are. Your screen would be pretty much black with these blue rings all over the place (should be a way to only detect enemy noise to avoid confusion). Obviously, since this is a disadvantage, it is compensated by the considerable amount of damage that it does. But then again, it abilities can be countered by walking only if your far enough away. Since it can also smell, a walking marine within range would show up kinda like scent of fear. I guess, i took a lot of it from DareDevil the movie, but hey it works.
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With risk to sound negative, that would confuse the living hell out of new players (me too). Unless there is some basic sense of level structure your pretty much stumbling in the darkness. Also because of this huge disadvantage (your blind and cant sense non-moving marines until they're near) there should be a big bonus in HP/damage or whatever. However doing that would make pro players tear marines apart with this creature.
It should rather be toggled by something tbh else it wont work.
The Kharaa are, on a basic level, sentient bacteria with psionic abilities, yes? (Note: The conclusion of psionic abilities comes from the idea that the hive can transmit information directly to all aliens at all times.)
Why would the Kharaa curse themselves with zoological (designs based on animal forms for the less apt...) limits? These bacteria deserve to be beaten if the best they can come up with is two forms of dogs, a bird, humanoid and a rhino. What stops them from using their bacterial forms at a basic level?
One of what I suggest here is something reminiscent of a moving... 'lichen' colony. As a primary function, I would imagine this thing could be used to help the dynamic infestation spread faster by... oh I don't know, 'preparing' the upcoming strata or even be used to give an 'armor coating' to alien structures. That would take up its Hive1 ability if we go by NS1 rules (skill 2). The skill itself would be kind of a bacterial spray, similar to the Gorge's. The first skill would have to be a faster movement ability. If you know your bacterial colonies... they tend to not move, and if they do, it tends to be impressively slow. Maybe something along the lines of a charged leap that varies in speed/distance. The ability itself would need a high reuse timer to prevent some goon from using this thing as a major weapon against marines all the time.
The hive2 ability would take the form of another bacterial spray. This one would be offensively-based, however, in that it would be more along the lines of say... a parasitic spray. Kind of like a lerk "Spore" that continually haunts a marine for a short distance or even a longer distance if you add in a random chance of that marine getting a particularly bad infection (maybe less than a 10% chance of this?). The potency of this attack would only be increased with more hives, maybe adding 2-4% chance of a greater infection per hive on a marine. The way the marines would counter this would be simply with a little luck and a medpack. The bad infection would only be available once on a marine and if it didn't infect them badly the first time, it simply won't ever. The damage from the infection could range from minor health loss to full-blown crippling of movement and reaction, maybe even being a <i>extremely</i> chance-based counter to catalyst?
A fourth (final?) ability is a bit iffy for me. I couldn't really think of anything. About the best I could come up with is a sort of 'psionic wave.' Maybe resulting in a disruption of action by marines. Not a halting of action like stomp, a disruption. What you would end up with say... a WASD movement configuration would result in your W switching with your D and your S switching with your A temporarily. I would nickname the 'brain fart'-emitter, but that's just me.
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Another suggestion would be of a fungal or plant-based lifeform. This is something I considered building a model for NS1 and having a friend help me code it into the game, but decided the HL1 engine was a little too limited for what I intended at the time...
It could move, but whilst moving, it would be <i>completely</i> defenseless, unable to take any action. However, when it would set up, it would be near impossible to remove. When set in place, it receives a bonus 'resistance.' That resistance would equate to maybe 1/4 or even 1/5 damage from bullet-based weaponry and even 1/2 damage from explosives (assuming that there isn't a more volatile explosive being used). The weakness to this would be a boon to people equipped with the upcoming flamethrower: 2-5x damage.
Now then, the purpose of this lifeform would be to be an ultimate defense. It would require multiple hives to survive. Without the support of the necessary number of hives, I would say it should slowly degenerate and eventually die.
How this lifeform functions is that if you set your base structure in place (you can pull up and haul ###### out of a location too, nothing stopping you), you can release a number of 'tendrils' to locations of your choosing (within range) which you choose by "firing" at places that get the "okay" from your crosshair for range. When the tendrils crawl their way across to the locations, you are given some options on what to do with each tendril.
One could be a mini-energy nozzle, acting as a personal movement chamber for your use, this would require movement upgrades to be available and since you're limited to maybe 12-18 different vines (each offensive leg would count as a vine, too), you might want to limit yourself to one or two.
The next node would be able to coat a region with a transparent, sticky sap that could partially snare marine's movement until they got out of it. You wouldn't be controlling this, it would simply coat a region around it in the sap.
A third node would be a nectar-producing node that provides no bonus to you, only your team, acting as a maybe a quick regeneration/energy recovering medicine or maybe as a catalyst-like drug (the way to make this interesting would be to color that alien's vision with a nice red overtone and maybe cause the alien to lose regeneration while the drug is active). Each use would be based on the size of the alien using it. Maybe an onos only gets a 1/2 effect from the entire node of nectar as opposed to maybe 6 skulks getting a full effect from a full node of nectar. This nectar would regenerate in a very slow manner, constantly taking energy away from you.
The final node type would be offensively-and-observationally-based. The first part of the node would be another 'eye' that you would switch to to see down another hallway or direction. Accompanying this eye would be anywhere from 0-5 offensive legs that would be placed by that eye in the same manner the base structure placed the other nodes, with a much shorter range, however. Now, you would have to be careful here, as that eye controls those spikes and if you do something stupid like place a spike on the wrong side of a structure, you might end up with a wasted leg.
Now then, the next thing that would be particularly dangerous for this lifeform beyond fire, is that legs and vines cannot be replaced while it is set up. This results in you needing to place nodes very precisely. Also, if a marine happens to burn an offensive leg along with six spikes before you kill him off, those legs are just plain gone until you pull up shop and find a gorge to restore you.
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Well, there you go, my horribly contrived and complicated ideas. Pick them apart!
With risk to sound negative, that would confuse the living hell out of new players (me too). Unless there is some basic sense of level structure your pretty much stumbling in the darkness. Also because of this huge disadvantage (your blind and cant sense non-moving marines until they're near) there should be a big bonus in HP/damage or whatever. However doing that would make pro players tear marines apart with this creature.
It should rather be toggled by something tbh else it wont work.
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It was just a suggestion. It doesn't need to be completely dark, maybe blurry and very faint (which some leetzorz can counter by turning up gamma and brightness, right). something to give it a bad sight.
Even better, up siding down vision, lawls
Cost to drop: 25 res
HP: 2500
AP: Hurr, buildings don't have armor!
Time to use: 5 seconds
Cooldown time: 30 seconds
If the structure is attacked during a cleansing, the cleansing stops and is nullified (i.e. the rine is not de-scented) and the cooldown timer starts. Even if the building is not destroyed, a single hit from a skulk will disrupt it and cause the cleansing to end. So, what do you think?
its about as big as a lerk, o nvm.i post results when im done.
4 arms 2 legs,can climb walls,but not ceilings.
uses bonespear and spike (you remember the lerk spike yes?)
trying to play with the idea of deafen/blinding enemies + that it also can infuse other aliens,
infuse its health into a structure or another alien,so that there is finally another medic on the field than the little gorgie.
but meh,not done,and im drawing on it when i get my little revelations and eurekas now and then.
think about how a shark has that little guy that hands off it to clean him, the deadly predator co exsisting with at little parasite that lives off him he doesnt have to swim, cleans the shark and gets to feed off scrapes
same with them birds that rest on the backs of hippos, they eat the bugs and avoid death form other predators as they have a safe resting location
you cut up 80% of the words here to make a name for said creature above and orsome others mentioned
prahaps a alien parasite that can enchance other kharaa, rapidly use teh kharaa's body as a play thing, but use it to get hidden and close to said rine, basicly attaches its self to a sulk rides its body to the destination, rine kills sulk steps on its corpse parasite then infects rine
the kharaa parasite effects would enchance its strengths
e.g. cant egg with parasite, so to gastate it would need to jump to another alien, gives its host a streagnth stamina boost increased inate regen, apon jumping on a rine it begins to do a DOT can force gun drops stomoch pains to cripple the host,
a interestign life this alien would have, one cos it would die if its rine host was alone and killed and the killer alien nicked off
so its life would want to keep the rine alive as long as possable but just hinder him or get him killed when there sevral rines around or a new ride to its next negative host
control over said rine would be a bad thing but stomoch pains forceing him to crouch and stop bend over or crawl in pain, lose his gun drop it on the ground in capasitations
if he types /kill leave parasite in his corpse like normal death of said rine and hope he gets a ride some time soon or gets redempted a MC ground movement would prolly be really slow and one parasite would die rapidly with out a host, chamber you could live on for a short time, stepping stones of a sort, same with infestation, it should be so small it can hide under infestation / in it, motion wouldnt detect it ether
a additonal side effect would be said infected rine cant phase paracite can hear rine orders read rine chat but can only talk in alien chat, parasited rines reguardless of server would also be susceptable to friendly fire damage if host dies corpse still stays parasite slowly dies corpse can be flame thrower toruched but it doesnt kill the parasite just speeds up its death
most effects will be passive aura like radius ones or ones that purely effect the host, kharaa side would most surely be passive and basicly just ride the carrier to the drop point
attack one could be nerv attack its a attack that sends the rine thru stages firslty the first 25% energy used or click spammed as it recharges is drop gun or hinderance the next 5% is drop gun the next 10-15% is slows movement evently if you get to low on energy this doubpled over rine would be o nteh ground haveing a comma like fit, how ever with otu the energy to sustain it keeping it in said fit stat, the exstremaly slow energy return on this creature will allow the rine to gain some control back, say the paracite starts the cycle again at 50% energy he may only have enough energy to double the rine over
if parasite has focus most stages will be skiped energy will be a tad more efficent, but you wont have the ability to spam say gun drop or movement hinder
punishment cycle resets after 2 seconds of no punishment sort of like how cloak kicks in
second ability
voice com understanding and or voice chat understanding, see health dispalys of rines friendlys, current hosts HP ammo armor allows for a few good windows
third
body stitch, protects the current host from friendly alien damage and or enamy friendly rine damage, rather rapid regen ni invinsability, its a fail safe so your host doesnt die in a aline ambush its a fail safe so rines dont waste you if there mate asks them to
fourth
cerebral impund, parasite devours the rines brain in a 2 second window, apone doing so rine takes a gun to his own head, ends his life, the longer the two seocnd window hterine is alive hte biger the passive health bonus / over health bonus the parasite gets, over health you say remeber in quke when you pick up mega health you cant have health over 100 to after a window it begins to tick down... over health aditional effects are also energy bost and increased jump and speed range, leaveing a hosts body or enetering one requries the E key
note friendly aliens cant be killed by kharaa alien but ability 3 works on them with mass regen / ni invonrablity for a few seconds, it will also help the kharaa get close to pray for the paracite to jump ship
prahaps a sulk can even lunch em at pray basicly sulk lunches normal parasites at rine if and the moment one hits para useing the sulk as a host teleports to the new host, parasited host apon entering of its body wouldnt know it was infected unless attack one effect kick in or it happens to take damage from friendlys, hive 2 will make this guy really hard to detect if its a tracking parasite or a social like scavanger parasite
it would be a effective way to save res, as it would be cheap, life exspectancy one would hope would be pritty long a 0.75 second transition, from ride to ride will allow a fast person with reflex to see a parasite connect to where it hit and landed and if quike enough can turn and shoot said parasite killing it, but one would have to have a sharp eye and be ready for it, it would be one of the few only ways to know your infected you prolly wouldnt see it enter your own body
the other thing would be if lunched by sulk it only sticks to the target, this is interesting make it enter the target on push from the parasite as it may then deside to turn around and jump on and latch onto the rine camping turtled around the courner watching the back of said parasited rine in turn makeing camping rine incapable of defending his mate a two man rine team
only possable if this rts hybrid picks up some sort of necromancy system
basicly i figure you got a queen roughly like the denum drawn one she can be a portable hive for say 75 res, she can then take that hive locations rather rapidly be mobile have some attacks
beign a queen unlocks a build type some form of kharaa grave yard each kharaa death adds to thsi grave yard at set incriments the size of the pile of kharaa limps spikes carcusses torn open frames with pratruding skeletons grows at peak it wil lbe a un climbable tower by any other form than sulks, perchable by lurks and climbable by the dark queen a portable like kharaa hive that has the ability to recall kharaa corpses and or body parts the dark queen is bound to her grave yard for the most part the more she watches over it or visits it the strogner she gets, larger more spikes more blades more armor
starting a grave yard requires the waste of a single res nozzel dark queens can hide in side grave yards, also each grave yard the dark queen builds with have deaths and or body parts salvaged from deaths stack up untill she swings by said grave yard to collect
a single sulk death will yeld a chance of adding some or what nots bits o parts that may to of recived a lot of pyshical damage, e.g a sulk that takes a GL round to the forid will not yeld any thing salvagable.
A leaping sulk takeing a shot gun round to the chest may yeld sevral limbs with spikes like attachments
in tackt jaws may offer up teeth for bullets, of a sort if a sulks body can be reserved, ono heads for armor fade arms for mroe legs speed and aditional thorn like radius damage sulk limbs are ammo for boomeranged like blades
the dark queens primary objective is to be come a tunnel filling swirling set of can it blend blades the bigge she gets the tougher she is to bring down, se recalls bacterium not ready to give up teh fight and re absorbsand restiches it to her self
exsesss bones and or wasted bits add up and stack up to be the grave yards grave yards would take a lot of damage to kill preferably fire, maybe sonic seiges cold rattle the bacterium to the core
reson it requries a res node is to limit grave yards and to keep them in the open to attrachtive area's
dark queens will merge dryder from DnD lore with denum drawing in design a alien with prahaps the HR gigger queen, her body would gather insize hte strongershe gets, she would gain more spikes more blades with each death of each type of alien
gorge death will yelds a better chance at recoveing parts from other aliens, sulks will provide ammo, lurks will provide size and static aura like passive buffs basicly salvages primal scream glands and spore glands and consistantly has a DOT could around her and a huge passive scream that note only gives away her positon but leaves her as the flag barer and the war brumer to spear head assults, the more ono deaths the stronger and more armor / armor absorbtion, the more fades the faster and more damage she deals
her attacks are mostly offensive except she does take damage when not burrowed in her grave yard
the sucess of the grave yard protecting her exsists on how much the grave yard has been feed at first its will be a scatered pile no more than knee hight after about 30 deaths or up to 60 deaths it could cover a ducked dark queen gorges would also beable to hide in a dark queen nest prahaps build on some of its ledges
attack one "puray"
yes its a blender option, turn things to liquid, remeber in teh labrinth when the tunnel cleaner coems by a twisting mess of blades, she preforms a action similar to the fades metabalise but with a much more faster rapid agressive full spikes out look about it deaing huge and increaseing amounts of damage to any thing in the front 180 arch
with say focus it be come more of a grinder basicly dealing huge wads of damage in huge ticks so burst damage vs consistant flow
attack two will be unleash
dark queen will begin to off load body parts and ammo types, at first they will consume energy but after energy which wotn last long they consume body parts and her over all staying damage and malee thorns damage will drop, but a chian gun of sulks teeth and sulk feet spikes lodgeing it no walls around rines and nailing them to there back drop liek the bolter in fear will make just about any one run a patern of ammo tyeps will work its self out depedant on ammo type if there more sulk teeth it will resemble more like a HMG if there only a few sulk feet spikes occationaly a bolter like spike will shoot off if it lands will deal additonal damage, boomerang like fade arms may fire out as well depending on the codeing avaliable and time spent it might just be as simple as consumeing energy to to fire off a set rate of projectile types
5 teeht 2 spikes 5 teeth two spikes one boomerang fade claw
third attack would be a sort of forward spike body thrust leap just a wall of spike hurdaling towards you, it would enduce rage doll effect knocking rines on there backs or front and impaleing them with spikes from the carapace like limbs the more limbs the merryer
4th attack a offensive escape self distruct, like a pipe bomb fileld with naisl and other forms of shrapnel she will clear afreashly beconed room of rine in as instant rounds the penertrate and staple corpse to walls, dark queen will teleport out like redemption apon excution and to do said move she will require 50% or more energy, in this order she wil lTP out to clsoest her grave yard, to closest friendly grave yard if she has no grave yards, to closest hive not under attack to closest hive under attack, no hives sorry no TP out, cant tp to other queens
a dark queen would work like this in res cost, 75% res to become a mobile hive with support attacks, see other various queen threads
20% rez to become a dark queen, 5% to drop a grave yard
so if a single alien res limit is 200 150 res to become queen 40 to become dark and 10 to drop a grave yard you hope will grow
i mean this thig is nasty it has streaghs an weaknesses, hopefully it up sides will allow for one or two a map consumeing maybe 3-4 res nodes any more than that i can garrentee aliens will get ###### as it doesnt allow for building on said res node unless GY is destroyed
dark queens are five times faster than normal queens and mvoe as fast as a onos chargeing... "yeah now i bet your ###### your pants""i know i would at being a vanilla marine stairing at a ebing twisting wall of black exstreamly sharp blades"
anyway we need 2 aliens: a higher lifeform and a lower lifeform
for the lower lifeform i suggest;
a sort of jellyfish, except instead of stingers it has 4 legs like the skulks, and is about the hight of skulk. it can also run on walls like a skulk (i find it odd that the most basic lifeform has an ability the others dont) it would move as fast as a gorge but it cannot jump! instead it would walk on the walls and stuff. its attacks would be comoflauge and predatorial stuff. it would cost 30 res so its a choice between a mobile or a stealth. it is a defensive alien! zomg no way
-attack 1a; swipe- only used when standing, it does an upward sweep of all its 2 of its claws (the front) and cuts marines
-attack 1b; lash- only used when hidden (next attack) all of its claws shoot upward and outward to do an AOE attack that deals quite a bit of damage
-attack 2; burrow- it digs itself into the ground and flattens its body, as well as gain high transparency (or camoflaugh (can only be seen if the marines is face to the screen looking for him) about 95%. it gains a web effect if a marine steps on it, and lasts until the alien is dead or the marine gets off. at this point the attack 1 switches to attack 1b. it can also burrow onto walls and roofs, blocking the web effect but making for more usefull spots with less visability. alien cannot unburrow with a marine on its head. the claws of the alien arent invisable and the body stays invisable during attacks. cloacking only effects the legs
attack 3; parasite (passive)- upon the 3rd hive all attacks that the alien does causes a parasite *cough BECAUSE NOBODY USES PARASITE AFTER 2 ND HIVE AND ITS ANOYING IDK IF WE HAVE SENSORY ATM <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":angry:" border="0" alt="mad-fix.gif" /> cough* <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
attack 4; snare- does the tounge effect of the barnacles like in HL2 cept looks like webs so that way the JPs have a new enemy (cuz if they resemble jp in NS3.2 then they need enemies)
i dont have any ideas for a higher lifeform but we need a tank with support attacks!! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
and the queen sounds entity consuming
The only name I could think of was Leviathan...but it's fitting.
+150% movement in the water, slow on land.
High HP, about 350...100-ish armor
Tech 1: slash: The leviathan uses its claws to slash marines. Duh. Damage: 80. Low adrenaline cost.
Tech 2: Charge: (In the water only) speeds your movement up for several seconds. Medium adrenaline cost.
Tech 3: Latch: The leviathan grasps a marine in the water in its jaws, and drags it away. Similar to devour, but no damage is taken other than the initial damage. The idea is to drown the marine. Damage: 50 High adrenaline cost.
Tech 4: Capsize: If aimed properly from the right angle, tips a small boat over and dumps the marines into the water. Uses ALL adrenaline, deals no damage to the marines.
<b>Variation One: FOV/Field of View Changes</b>
To spice things up, we change the way how the alien life forms perceive the world around them.
<b>Skulk FOV changes:</b> For example, the skulks could have a larger FOV, seeing how the eyes are on the sides of their heads. If anyone's played the original Alien Versus Predator game as the Alien life form, you'd see what I mean. With a larger and fuzzier field of view, this could entice people to play the game when they see something genuinely different and interesting.
Also, the idea of changing the FOV and HUDs could be tied into the development of a new alien life form that sense movement, smells, injuries, etc, and acts more of an intelligence/recon/spy type unit than a brute melee type unit. Since the earlier post about the evolutionary tree and natural selection and evolution of lifeforms in competition should go, I thought that it might be fitting to take a look at the evolution of our current systems of warfare.
For example, throught history, we have always been developing bigger, deadlier weapons to combat our enemies. First it was the club, then it was the spear. Then it was the mace, then it was the sword. And to compliment them, the buckler, shield, leather armour, padded felt armour, plate armour. Then from their, ranged weapons - bows, arrows, crossbows. Then from there, armour that was resistant to armour piercing crossbows. Then we developed gunpowder, Cannons, pure fire undoing stone. Then we developed Kevlar to resist gun pellets. Then we developed armour piercing rounds. Then we developed bombs, then nukes to wipe out enemies from afar.
-Slight Divergence-
As a divergent from what I'm saying, I think marines should still keep their monopoly on ranged weapons, but bring back lerk spikes or give the kharaa some ranged weapons, albeit not as harmful or potent, to give the kharaa more of a hit-and-run feeling to it. Also, I vote we should bring back nukes, if it hasn't been decided already (Sorry, I've been away for a while, haven't been up to date on developments), but in a way that doesn't make them unbalanced.
-Divergence Ended-
Anyway, my point is, we have reached the point where information warfare is MUCH, <b>MUCH</b> more important than physical warfare. Look at recent examples of wars and conflicts - Much of the victory was won when the parties involved in the battles and conflicts were able to knock out their opponents information and intel sources. Radar jamming, EMP, hacking into computer systems, disabling power and water grids, disrupting weapon, ammo, and vital health supplies, etc.
So I propose that NS2 follows this route as well, that is, if the devs feel like it, as it's their game and its entirely up to them <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
Anyway, was brainstorming a creature with the following details:
<b>Name:</b> Aether Leech
<b>Background Description:</b> The Aether Leech is unlike anything the TSA has ever seen or encountered with the Kharaa. We thought that the Onos was the final end of the evolutionary ladder for the kharaa, with the Species' intelligence gathering capabilities already satisfied with their sensory chambers and parasitic entities from their notorious skulks. However, it seems that this is not the case. They have seem to developed another life form to combat our increased surveillance, to act as counter-intelligence, and to serve as intelligence gathering agents and recon units themselves.
They were first discovered at the Arcuton Geo-Physical Research Centre in SU-6840, on the 2nd moon of the 4th planet in the system, not too far from the main fighting between the main TSA forces and the Kharaa. The Arcuton Research Facility was involved in heavy top secret intelligence and counter intelligence projects on behalf of the TSA in their efforts to combat the Kharaa menace, when it suddenly came under attack from a horde of Skulks. They quickly overcame a third of the facility, and would've consumed the entire centre, were it not for the heroic efforts of the marines stationed there, and for the reinforcements that soon arrived. How the Kharaa came to be aware of the importance of the projects going on at Arcuton, we are not yet sure. Or it could've been a random target. However, what happened next was most frightening.
The marines, after days of fighting against the Kharaa, with heavy losses sustained by both sides, were poised to reach the final hive and end the Kharaa menace. Until suddenly, the main unit advancing on the Hive lost all radio contact with the base. From what we have been able to piece together, their radio communications were jammed.
At 1456 hundred hours on day 5 at the main marine base, telecommunications and radio contact with the main forward unit was lost. The commander and marines reported that they had lost motion tracking of the aliens in the facility. Which was nigh impossible! As there was no method of the Kharaa circumventing the TSA's motion tracking technology without standing still. Soon after, the commander yelled in terror. The main forward unit were requesting Medical Health Packs and Catalysts, the commander tried to provide them to the unit, but was unable to - the interface simply wouldn't allow him to provide the unit with their needed supplies. The commander watched in horror as the unit was mauled down by 3 Fades and a contingent of Skulks - in darkness. The commander's display of the section where the marines were suddenly became black. With only the light beams of the marines torches and their muzzle flashes illuminating the surrounding chaos.
Seconds later, all equipment at the marines' based ceased to function. Following which, an artificial darkness encircled the base. The last flurry of activity was inside the Command Console where the base commander filed an emergency report and gathered all the data on the battle and fired a burst transmission back to the main TSA base in the region. A few seconds later, the base fell dead silent.
<b>Monster Description:</b>
Hit Points: 150
Armour: 0
The Aether Leech is similar to a jelly fish of our native Earth. The top "dome" is the same as a sensory chamber, and there are a mass of feelers extending from underneath it. The Aether Leech can't see directly, it's HUD is entirely dark. Except it can detect movement with the aid of hive sight and Scent of Fear. Otherwise, it has to be lead around the map by another of the Kharaa sub-species.
<b>Ability Description:</b>
<b>Ability 1:</b> Disruption Field
Description: This ability temporarily disrupts the intelligence gathering and motion tracking activities of the TSA in a small radius. Kharaa that would otherwise appear on the a TSA Marine's would be shielded, when in the vicinity of the Aether Leech and it utilizes this ability. This can be countered with the Observatory's Scan ability.
<b>Ability 2:</b> Cloaking Field
Description: Similar to the Disruption Field, but upgraded. Cloaks Kharaa in the nearby vicinity of the Aether Leech in a cloaking field. Can be dispelled with scan. The field is has a MUCH shorter range
<b>Ability 3:</b> Infestation Field
Description: This ability prevents the base commander from dropping supplies in the nearby radius of the area in which and when the Aether Leech activates this ability. This is somewhat haphazard for the Aether Leech, as it is frail, and has to be approach the contingent of marines to make this ability effective. Small to Medium Radius.
<b>Ability 4:</b> Creeping Darkness
Description: The most powerful of the Aether Leech's powers. Once activated, this ability surrounds the entire area in an artificial darkness which cannot currently be dispelled by any known means. Marines can see through this only through short distances with the aid of their flashlights and muzzle flashes. Kharaa can see through the darkness perfectly with their hive sight.
yes AVP used a sighly bigger FOV also the camera view placement on the alien was further foward in the avatar
secondly you can already increase your FOV in NS, how ever i dont recommend it, i bleive AV alien used a a illusion in the HUD to coutner the motion skikenss the human body exsperiances when looking at a monitar with a FOV of 90 + 120 is about its limits, 180 will make you vomit or feel really sic with in minutes and any thing above 180 not only messes with the screen to much, yes you can see all around you no one can sneak up on you, but you lose the ability to target
feel free to chuck SV_cheat 1 on and adjust your FOV i think there area a few settings you want to play with i dont know them off hand, but i was dared to do this a while ago in a thread on these forums i had a crack at it i thought i could handle it at first it seamed fine suddenly after the 7 ish minute period i became very ill to the stomoch and basicly staggered / crawled away from the computer my eyes very heavy
there are peopel that play with increased FOV's but i bleive they would train there selves to do so, in other words increase the fov distance 2 notches every few weeks
its a nice idea but can be very nausiating, if any one has the commends i would love to go back and have another crack at it just for another buzz
Similar smaller lifeforms alike Skulk should maintain the "S" or "Sk" or "Sc" in the name <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
<u><b>Scoutling</b></u> (my favorite name)
Overall:
A very small 5res lifeform.
Capable of providing hivesight "Scent of Fear"-lvl2 to fellow creatures of the kharaa.
Main job would be to spy on the TSA's progress with stealthy approach.
Does lighter and very quiet "tick" sounds.
Has cloak lvl1 BUT not the invisibility(!)
Instead, it should allow the Scoutling to move into OBS scanned perimeters. Thus not appearing on motiontracking unless the Scoutling has suffered dmg recently.
Scoutling should have the ability to "leech" res from marine RT nodes.
The Scoutling would have a pool of (0/7) to fill and can return it to a gorge or hive by +USE command (that "e" key).
Cons:
Cannot gestate into Gorge immediately and requires longer time to re-gestate into skulk.
Work-in-progress idea <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
<u><b>Scavenger</b></u>
This lifeform should generally focus primarily on harvesting res for the kharaa. It should have weak to no defenses and should be able to share res alike mentioned above in the "leech" idea.
The Scavenger should be able to gather for example the GEAR of fallen marines, their rifles, ammo and beamed-in-too-late medpacks to fill their (0/25) respool reserve to share to gorges or the complete team.
Work-in-progress
=A lifeform between Lerk and Fade, 35-40res.=
<u><b>Whipper</b></u>
Imagine the Alien Xenomorph's tail, only that a Kharaa lifeform would have four or five.
This idea is a bit far-fetched.
Able to Wall-stick (not wall-walk)
Able to "plunge ahead", a type of leap or blink, yet slower and does not cost energy.
Offensive
Basic ability:
Direct and precise tail whip/sting (remember AVP)
Costs low energy
Hive1 ability:
Can use its tails as an extended swipe.
Swings tails viciously to wreck havoc. Can deal severe dmg over a short time by swinging tails several over the frontal arc.
Moderate to high energy costs
Hive2 ability:
Can deliver several swings at once causing Area of Effect melee damage.
Mutilple swings allows it to take on a small group of marines. Requires high amount of energy.
Causes either knockback or major desoritation (major FOV wobble like in TFC, the concussion grenades -that cause your aim to go sloppy)
Should be used for hit and run.
Should require a lot of energy. The whipper needs to escape with its +MOVEMENT ability.
Hive3 ability:
Tail embrace.
Can "capture" one marine or heavy armor.
Once the victim has been captured, the whipper is unable to attack other units. Primary use is to take the victim to fellow Kharaa players and have them attack the victim.
Embrace requires energy-over-time. Once depleted, the victim is free.
----
These are just idea floating in my head. Maybe brainfarts <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
$parkeh
The
Nothing special really <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
<img src="http://www.opticpower.com/kylie/2006art/concept/chakra.jpg" border="0" alt="IPB Image" />
chakra
name meaning - One of the seven centers of spiritual energy in the human body according to yoga philosophy.
about this alien
a level up from the onos this creature only appears when all three hives are alive and thriving. The chakra has 4 jaws which make it able to capture and hold its prey. the creature itself is blind and uses a sonar type ability like the bat to see around, it is extremely sensitive to motion and can find enemies through walls.
the chakra is an extremely mobile creature, due to its serious damage it causes and its fast speed it lacks in armour. Unlike the onos it requires on being able to damage as much as possible before dying, this creature is an elite new species which evolved and relied on all three hives to be up to be born. Its great strength and speed comes from the energy of the hives.
It is a very smart creature and has been known to sense the actions of its enemies and dodging their movements and giving a very accurate blow. When angered or near death the creature goes into a rage state where it charges and attacks everything around it in a desperate act to defeat its enemies.
abilities-
1- Ravage
powerful bite attack, more powerful than the onos bite with focus.
2- Poison sting
the tentacles in the chakras mouth are toxic and when lashed out cause a target to be poisoned and temporarily shocked in place for 5 or so seconds
3- devour
much like the onos the chakra pulls prey into its mouth and devours it, devouring however is much faster than an onoses due to the high andrenaline of this creature
3 alternative- Slash
the head lashes out causing a very powerful bite which rips at the target causing them to bleed heavily over 10 seconds.
4- Oblicerate
causes the chakra to go into an furious state where vision changes to make all enemy targets bright red, while under this state you cause considerable damage to everything around you while attacking anything that hits you will be damaged and while using ravage while in this state will cause extra damage to be taken by up to 4 enemies which come into contact with your body, you need to keep holding down (much like blink and charge) to keep this effect. large amounts of energy is required for this attack.
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i am adding a qoute of youre post to this topic <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?s=8864538995092401152&act=st&f=84&t=100079&st=0#entry1600407" target="_blank">here</a>
A 15 or 20 res creature, it would be a six legged spider creature which is slightly bigger than a Skulk but can fit inside vents and can walk on walls and ceilings. It is weak and does not move as fast as the Skulk, but it carries 5 to 8 little bat creatures on its underside. Its primary function is to sit in wait for advancing Marines.
It relies on its minions to attack. The main attack spits pheromones, which the bats swarm to and remain at for a few seconds; during this time the Spider cannot move, and can only spit more pheromones. If any Marines are near or hit by the Pheromones the bats will swarm them.
Marines can kill the bats, but the best way to defend against them is to either run or kill the weak spider host creature. With one hive the Spider can use 1/2 energy ro regenerate a bat, with 2 hives the spider gains a needle attack which damages Marines over range, and with 3 hives the Spider can bite Marines with a poison that does 10 direct health damage per second and can only be healed at an Armory (look out Heavies).
The other unique thing is that Spiders get a sort of Sonar vision; pulses are sent out every second for 25 feet or so, highlighting terrain or enemies. This requires those who use the Spider to be skilled in compensating for the "strobe" effect, but also allows them to see through walls and recon for the rest of the Aliens.
And the Spider can also roll around quickly on the ground while holding the Jump button.
I want to spread the idea of a sort of Controller like Kharra form.
A 15 or 20 res creature, it would be a six legged spider creature which is slightly bigger than a Skulk but can fit inside vents and can walk on walls and ceilings. It is weak and does not move as fast as the Skulk, but it carries 5 to 8 little bat creatures on its underside. Its primary function is to sit in wait for advancing Marines.
It relies on its minions to attack. The main attack spits pheromones, which the bats swarm to and remain at for a few seconds; during this time the Spider cannot move, and can only spit more pheromones. If any Marines are near or hit by the Pheromones the bats will swarm them.
Marines can kill the bats, but the best way to defend against them is to either run or kill the weak spider host creature. With one hive the Spider can use 1/2 energy ro regenerate a bat, with 2 hives the spider gains a needle attack which damages Marines over range, and with 3 hives the Spider can bite Marines with a poison that does 10 direct health damage per second and can only be healed at an Armory (look out Heavies).
The other unique thing is that Spiders get a sort of Sonar vision; pulses are sent out every second for 25 feet or so, highlighting terrain or enemies. This requires those who use the Spider to be skilled in compensating for the "strobe" effect, but also allows them to see through walls and recon for the rest of the Aliens.
And the Spider can also roll around quickly on the ground while holding the Jump button.
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I think the primary attack could be more like a worm like thing that would automatically start going around the map attacking marines and if the marines are hit they will be parasited, could be small worm like things with small fade claws at the front and sharp teeth <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" /> (ripoff from Wh40k), while they are being fired it would open up a comm like view to the alien so it could guide them to the right direction and at any times could stop commanding them but at which point they would be destroyed in say 20-30seconds while crawling around helplessly. Would be 1hive = 2 parasites, 2 hives 3parasites and 3 hives 4 parasites
I want to spread the idea of a sort of Controller like Kharra form.
A 15 or 20 res creature, it would be a six legged spider creature which is slightly bigger than a Skulk but can fit inside vents and can walk on walls and ceilings. It is weak and does not move as fast as the Skulk, but it carries 5 to 8 little bat creatures on its underside. Its primary function is to sit in wait for advancing Marines.
It relies on its minions to attack. The main attack spits pheromones, which the bats swarm to and remain at for a few seconds; during this time the Spider cannot move, and can only spit more pheromones. If any Marines are near or hit by the Pheromones the bats will swarm them.
Marines can kill the bats, but the best way to defend against them is to either run or kill the weak spider host creature. With one hive the Spider can use 1/2 energy ro regenerate a bat, with 2 hives the spider gains a needle attack which damages Marines over range, and with 3 hives the Spider can bite Marines with a poison that does 10 direct health damage per second and can only be healed at an Armory (look out Heavies).
The other unique thing is that Spiders get a sort of Sonar vision; pulses are sent out every second for 25 feet or so, highlighting terrain or enemies. This requires those who use the Spider to be skilled in compensating for the "strobe" effect, but also allows them to see through walls and recon for the rest of the Aliens.
And the Spider can also roll around quickly on the ground while holding the Jump button.
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why would a spider produce bats?
if it looks and behaves like a spider, you should make it so that it spreads webs instead of the gorge, and that it spawns a brood of baby spiders, not bats.... also maybe give it a poison bite attack, or the ability to use the webs to spin a cocoon around a marine, like in lord of the rings...
it would be cool to enter a room and see webs everywhere, and in the corner a huge spiders web with a big, black arachnid sitting in the middle of it, and then you realize the small baby spiders crawling on the walls and floor towards you.....
your idea sounds really good and i like how you have thought through how the spider would regenerate the "bats"...
it just needs a bit of tweaking, to make it look more real and make it more believable.
The outdoor mode needs a huge amount of players. Just be creative. If you start to count, it's about ~30(15vs15) players, that's neccesary. It's too much i think. But the indoor gamemode doesnt require so many palyers, just 12-14 like NS.
About new lifeforms: i ve been thinking of a new flying creature since i've first played with NS. It's a fly like monster, with a buzzy noise, and i has got huge eyes. So just like a fly.
Actually, i don't want to creat the msot powerful, hardcore, awesome, invulnerable creature that slays the rines, like pigs. No it's about keepings the marines busy.
Health:150
Armor:50(because of the cithin armor)
Speed: 85-90% of the lerks speed.
It doesn't cost energy to fly, like flies seems to never be tired in normal life. But it has abilities, that costs lots of energy. And one of the msot important things is to silence(or something liek that in NS2) doesnt effects totally on this. So it has a buzzy sound everytime, maybe not as loud as normally.
It'd be able to stack on the walls. But its pretty difficult. It'd be really annoying, when you are flying throught the marines, and you stack on the ceiling, cuz you accidentally hit it. Maye, you could stack by "use" or sth. It about to be figured out.
1)Illusion: It has an illusion attack. It looks like, it multiplys itself, but there is only one real. im thinking of 2 fake creatures near the normal, but its important to the real isn't in the center all the time. Cuz it can as big as you wish, the pro players can aim on the middle anytime.
2)Parasite: I thinks every one has already thought about that, parasite shouldn't belong to skulks. I think parasite matches better with a fly, than a dog-like alien. But i have some changes. If it parasites someone, that rine starts to emit a poisonous gase, in a small area, BUT it doesn't kill him(and also, it'll be shown on the alien screen, like parasite in NS). Like a virus host(or maybe only damage 2 health/sec). So if our cute little fly infects all fo the rines, it doesn't make any sense, cuz noone will be hurt. It can increase the tactical fractor of the game, pretty much.
Parasite hit: 20 dmg
Cloud range: 50-75% of the lerk spore(depends on to be balanced)
Cloud damage: 7 health/sec
3)Bile bomb vol.2:)(if you can tell me a good name, don't eschew.) So it looks like an egg, almost as big as the creature. But it's not as easy to throw it into the middle of the rine group. It's very delicate, if you throw it from far distance, it breaks, and i's going to look like more an omlett than a weapon:D. So you have to be careful with it. I think it could damage the marines, and it'd be useless against structures, but it could be on the contrary.
Range:It's about to be figured ot, depends on the balance
Damage: -||-
4)Cloak: now it's a strange attack, but i think very useful. Our cute little fly starts to buzzz like hell, and it's going to be invisible, but it's stacked on the wall, and cant move. I mean, if it moves, the cloak disappears. It'd be easy to locate where is it for a pro player with good ears. There could be an echoes effect near the creature, that makes more difficult to locate. Oh, and of course, if it's shot then the cloak disappear. It costs lots of energy, but it can "deaf" the rines, and this way, it can help the skulk to lurk.(You can lough at me, but i got the idea from a PowerPuffGirls episode <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/nerd-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="::nerdy::" border="0" alt="nerd-fix.gif" /> <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" /> )
What do you think about it?
Illusion is pretty useless, especially vs. fairly-long range shotgun, GL, or anything like that. Instead, how about an attack that's long range, does little damage, and costs little energy? Perhaps it could have low recharge time as well. That seems more annoying. Flight is already good enough to avoid stuff.
Parasite is very annoying, at least I think it is. Keep that on there.
The bile bomb could be a type of acid that only corrodes marine armor. Another great way to annoy, would make them have to re-weld each other. Maybe you would have to drop it while flying?
I don't like the cloak, considering it's a normal upgrade. Perhaps something that makes marines deaf for a few seconds, like make the marines hear that noise when you're too close to a grenade that explodes? Or perhaps even a flash-bang type effect. Either or.
Now I think THAT would be an annoying thing to keep the marines busy.
So my ideas:
For the Chakra (change the name for god sakes), the environment could be like a topographical map, with white stripes showing the contours of the map, and with people making sounds appearing to illuminate the areas around them with more illumination towards how the sounds would travel. (so a bunch of marines in a room would appear to make the doorway glow more than it should).
----------------------------------------------------------------
New alien:
Recononsaur! (I don't know, make something up!) (Promethius: Future sight? Methius: Sight?)
Would be a small alien, about the size of a gorge. It'd be blind, using the system I described above to see (a minor advantage). Fairly skulk shaped, but rounded with a armadillo like back. Fairly weak, decent speed, able to climb walls (maybe).
---------------------
Attacks:
Nibbling Parasite: does more damage than reg. parasite, tracks the person, and also causes constant damage.
Bacterial Spray: Heal spray like, but instead it disables Marine buildings for a short period, and maybe immobilizing Heavies for a brief period and preventing jetpackers from jetpacking. Could hang like a cloud for a little bit.
Psionic Wave: Its been suggested before. Acts like the alien's form of a scan, could even use same graphics (floor sweep) except orange.
Psionic Pulse: Causes you to glow for a second before the pulse is released. Wide area effect. It disables the marine's equipement, turns all fired grenades(maybe) and mines into duds; temporarily causes lighting to flicker (probably outside source's capabilites); causes all buildings in radius to shutdown for a while (except armories, however they are slowed (have to dig into the thing to get the reserve ammo)); disorients marines (think conc. gren. from TFC); darkens or clears commander sight in area (makes it eratic/fuzzy?); depletes all your energy; saps a little bit of your health, increasing each time you use it until it instant kills you;
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"Its like the knew we were coming, like they had some sort of bloody promethius!"
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I know the Psionic Pulse is really really freaking powerful, its sort of a compensation for having such a sucky creature.
-Sheepe
basicially a big gecko/lizard thing smaller than a skulk, that clings to walls like glue, and can also cling onto marines by sinking in its talons, and bite them on which ever body part you've clinged onto. but make it extremely agile so it can pounce off a wall onto a marines chest, get a few bites in, then jump away extremely quickly.
make it something that will be good at patrolling the corridors quickly and stealthly. an alien designed for ambushes, not frontal assaults. i'd love to see a long tail trailing its movement.
maybe it could also have a super amazing run-on-water ability like in the photo? ahahaha
<!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->either way, the only new thing i really want to do as an alien in NS2 is grab a marine and gnaw his face off. <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
doh! attachment didnt work! =(
photo can be found here....
<a href="http://www.orsm.net/php/showmemore.php?count=19&folder=../ishe/update20070201" target="_blank">http://www.orsm.net/php/showmemore.php?cou.../update20070201</a>
or an alien that with three hives does a body snatcher! head crab thing?
perhaps he only can take over the, arms or the legs depending where he strikes lol.
I like a dark lord alien. This alien who can project phantoms, false walls, false aliens etc he is a one hive guy.
<img src="http://www.flyingislands.co.uk/gallery2/d/43-2/speedpic_ugly.jpg" border="0" alt="IPB Image" /> not my art.
or the builder unit can drag Rhine's body's back to be recycled for a shadow rine, looks smiler from a distance, however legs bend backwards and he can jump freakish distances.
<img src="http://www.xprojectmagazine.com/bohemian/art/gyp/alien_gyp.jpg" border="0" alt="IPB Image" />
outdoor maps anyone?
<img src="http://www.flyingislands.co.uk/gallery2/d/26-3/crashed_ship_1b.jpg" border="0" alt="IPB Image" />
We have hardly touched decompression, acid through walls to make new openings!
However what we really need is physics, cut off a Rhine head and toss it at them "does damage" toss a body at some Rhine's does damage, stack Rhine body's to make fort etc. Games are about bragging rights what better brag than i won by impaling him with his own rib!!!
Also Rhine tosses a grenade at his fallen buddies bits go every ware and they do damage!
stack Rhine body's to make fort etc. <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
ahahaha! i want my gorgy to build a corpse fort with oc turrets <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/pudgy.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="::gorge::" border="0" alt="pudgy.gif" />
that would be stupid, yet mildly entertaining