The Agility Chamber
StixNStonz
Join Date: 2006-11-06 Member: 58439Members, Reinforced - Shadow
Join Date: 2006-11-06 Member: 58439Members, Reinforced - Shadow
<div class="IPBDescription">You only need one, and its not locked to a hive</div>QUICK OVERVIEW:
A new, independent chamber which costs 30 to drop, you only need 1, and it adds abilities (not weapon-abilities but mostly +use abilities) to all classes, and the chamber itself doubles the jump height of aliens nearby. Can be dropped anytime, does not lock to a hive.
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Ive had some random ideas over the years, and i think they can tied together into an overall new chamber type. Ill explain abilities received first, and then how to actually work the Chamber. Here goes;
Abilities:
SKULK: (1)<u>Dig</u>. The skulk would basically hit a button (or hold E for 3 seconds or something), and could then dig through walls. It would basically be noclip, would put a 'digestion-like' sprite, or a moving 'crumbles' model over the view, and the skulk would have a 'breath bar' or something. But, he could *VERY SLOWLY* move THROUGH walls. It would make noise, and if the breath bar ran out, the skulk dies instantly, or quickly. How cool would it be to put this to use; talk about new ambushing options, especially when used with Silence.
(2) <u>Skulks pulling weapons</u>. Perhaps a 2nd hive innate ability. A skulk could look at a dropped weapon, hit e, and then *slowly* drag it backwards, and only backwards. Would be useful for moving that HMG just out of sight, etc.
FADE: <u>Fades with Guns</u>. OMG. It sounds ridiculous, and it pretty much is, but it *COULD* be balanced. The fade would +use a dropped gun, and then his swipe would become a very clumsy, much-larger-cone-of-fire use of the weapon. +Movement would still be blink etc, and he couldnt reload, but IMAGINE THIS S***. How crazy would that be to see a goddamn fade blinking around your siege loc with bullets flying into all your marines. Forget MVM; we just gotta equip the fades <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" /> Besides, with enough of an accuracy drain for the FHMG (pronounced 'faychemgee', lol), the marines might actually have an easier time taking him out.
GORGE: <u>Gorges climbing walls</u>. Hold +use for 5 seconds, and then the gorges gets skulk-like wallwalk, except he goes about 1/4 the speed of normal walk.
LERK: (1)<u>Lerks perching</u>. Holding +use anywhere.
(2) Possible additional ability; +movement becomes an evasive tactic. Look for the barrel roll comments in the I&S. Basically, the aim would lock, and the lerk would do a big circle AROUND the crosshair. In essence, he would do this crazy evasive move. You could fly right at a marine, hit this, and have a good chance of making it right to him. Or away. But you'd almost certainly have to lock the crosshair, cuz it would just get too crazy otherwise.
ONOS: <u>Onos carrying skulks</u>. An onos can eat an HA marine whole, so why cant he fit a skulk or a few into his mouth/stomach like an APC? They could 'see out the front', LOL, and then hop out as they please. Talk about a base rush.
As i said, these are very random ideas. They're not really general 'upgrades', since each is pretty specific to a class and not like Celerity that each class can use.
As such, perhaps instead, there could be the addition of an <u>'Agility Chamber'</u> that would act differently than the others. It would be very expensive, maybe 30 res to drop; you could drop multiple, but you only need 1 to get the full abilities, maybe very one i named just now. None are super amazing, and a lot of people wouldn't even use them. But you could see why it would be beneficial to have them. The agility chambers (ACs) could make also do something like double the jump height of aliens nearby.
It would be a small but significant addition, also adding cool new gameplay as the marines scan around to find if the AC, rush it, and hope its the only one.
A new, independent chamber which costs 30 to drop, you only need 1, and it adds abilities (not weapon-abilities but mostly +use abilities) to all classes, and the chamber itself doubles the jump height of aliens nearby. Can be dropped anytime, does not lock to a hive.
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Ive had some random ideas over the years, and i think they can tied together into an overall new chamber type. Ill explain abilities received first, and then how to actually work the Chamber. Here goes;
Abilities:
SKULK: (1)<u>Dig</u>. The skulk would basically hit a button (or hold E for 3 seconds or something), and could then dig through walls. It would basically be noclip, would put a 'digestion-like' sprite, or a moving 'crumbles' model over the view, and the skulk would have a 'breath bar' or something. But, he could *VERY SLOWLY* move THROUGH walls. It would make noise, and if the breath bar ran out, the skulk dies instantly, or quickly. How cool would it be to put this to use; talk about new ambushing options, especially when used with Silence.
(2) <u>Skulks pulling weapons</u>. Perhaps a 2nd hive innate ability. A skulk could look at a dropped weapon, hit e, and then *slowly* drag it backwards, and only backwards. Would be useful for moving that HMG just out of sight, etc.
FADE: <u>Fades with Guns</u>. OMG. It sounds ridiculous, and it pretty much is, but it *COULD* be balanced. The fade would +use a dropped gun, and then his swipe would become a very clumsy, much-larger-cone-of-fire use of the weapon. +Movement would still be blink etc, and he couldnt reload, but IMAGINE THIS S***. How crazy would that be to see a goddamn fade blinking around your siege loc with bullets flying into all your marines. Forget MVM; we just gotta equip the fades <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" /> Besides, with enough of an accuracy drain for the FHMG (pronounced 'faychemgee', lol), the marines might actually have an easier time taking him out.
GORGE: <u>Gorges climbing walls</u>. Hold +use for 5 seconds, and then the gorges gets skulk-like wallwalk, except he goes about 1/4 the speed of normal walk.
LERK: (1)<u>Lerks perching</u>. Holding +use anywhere.
(2) Possible additional ability; +movement becomes an evasive tactic. Look for the barrel roll comments in the I&S. Basically, the aim would lock, and the lerk would do a big circle AROUND the crosshair. In essence, he would do this crazy evasive move. You could fly right at a marine, hit this, and have a good chance of making it right to him. Or away. But you'd almost certainly have to lock the crosshair, cuz it would just get too crazy otherwise.
ONOS: <u>Onos carrying skulks</u>. An onos can eat an HA marine whole, so why cant he fit a skulk or a few into his mouth/stomach like an APC? They could 'see out the front', LOL, and then hop out as they please. Talk about a base rush.
As i said, these are very random ideas. They're not really general 'upgrades', since each is pretty specific to a class and not like Celerity that each class can use.
As such, perhaps instead, there could be the addition of an <u>'Agility Chamber'</u> that would act differently than the others. It would be very expensive, maybe 30 res to drop; you could drop multiple, but you only need 1 to get the full abilities, maybe very one i named just now. None are super amazing, and a lot of people wouldn't even use them. But you could see why it would be beneficial to have them. The agility chambers (ACs) could make also do something like double the jump height of aliens nearby.
It would be a small but significant addition, also adding cool new gameplay as the marines scan around to find if the AC, rush it, and hope its the only one.
Comments
Instead of a lerk pulling a barrel roll, I say he should do a split S <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" /> It's the GOD of all evasive manuvers
I like that one.
I lol'd at the fade with guns idea <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
Lerk perching should probably be innate too. I like that idea.
Same with gorge wallwalking. This might be necessary if chamber building on ceilings and walls was permitted as was suggested in a thread below this. You might need to rework their model a little so it didn't look ridiculous seeing a fatty hanging from the ceiling...dropping sporemines LOL.
I could picture them making a disgusting suction cup sound as they walk on the ceiling.
skulks pulling weapons isn't a bad idea, but why not just have the ability to munch them and put them out of commission?
Fades with guns? Funny, I sat here laughing for a few minutes, but...no. Marines don't need a large group of blinking, shooting fades.
Lerk perching is a good idea, as well as the barrel roll. But I don't see how perching would do anything other than what it already can do: land on a small surface and look down.
Gorge wall climb would be a good idea simply because it would allow gorges to get out of the way or larger life forms and still be effective.
Onos APC: Thanks, but no thanks. Skulks can already trail in behind an onos almost unnoticed, since everyone will be firing at the onos anyways.
On a side note...Jumping 2x as high is fun! Would lerks fly 2x as fast?
Assuming NS is the first time that the Khaara have come across technologically advanced humans, in the few years that have passed to NS2, the Khaara would have adapted to learn how to use the marines' own weapons against them. Of course, The fade couldn't reload, but how hard is it to pull a trigger? Maybe, for balance issues, once the fade pulls the trigger, the gun keeps constantly firing until the clip is expended. That way, a Fade couldn't camp outside of marine spawn with a freshly dropped HMG and pick off the rines at it's leisure.
The Onos APC would also be an amazing addition to the game. It would be just like a horror movie, a definite + to the dark, creepy atmosphere of the game.
I seriously hope the devs read this thread.
I think the word that fits there would be "phase-shifting".
That, however, is more of a fade thing tho <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
$parki
As much fun as most of these would be, they'd be hella hard to balance <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" />
Instead of a lerk pulling a barrel roll, I say he should do a split S <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" /> It's the GOD of all evasive manuvers
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/agree
Definately quoted, too.
<!--quoteo(post=1620481:date=Apr 12 2007, 07:10 AM:name=Bigbio2002)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Bigbio2002 @ Apr 12 2007, 07:10 AM) [snapback]1620481[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
Actually, I think the Fades with guns idea is good. It's the kind of new gameplay feature that would be perfect in NS, and it fits with the game universe.
Assuming NS is the first time that the Khaara have come across technologically advanced humans, in the few years that have passed to NS2, the Khaara would have adapted to learn how to use the marines' own weapons against them. Of course, The fade couldn't reload, but how hard is it to pull a trigger? Maybe, for balance issues, once the fade pulls the trigger, the gun keeps constantly firing until the clip is expended. That way, a Fade couldn't camp outside of marine spawn with a freshly dropped HMG and pick off the rines at it's leisure.
The Onos APC would also be an amazing addition to the game. It would be just like a horror movie, a definite + to the dark, creepy atmosphere of the game.
I seriously hope the devs read this thread.
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I agree with you, but as he said with the idea the Fade's accuracy would be horribly diminished compared to the marines (or that's what I got out of it at least).
The Onos 'APC' is also a definate good idea for an addition (or an idea well enough thought that the devs SHOULD take a look into), but it might be a bit buggy of sorts (like maybe make it so the Onos can have keys to open/close his mouth to kind of give skulks a chance to climb in/out as they please, and if they're in he can close it to protect them [as what is an Onos but a cow-like dodongo {Zelda reference}, and what's to stop a grenade-fury marine from lobbing a grenade or two into an open Onos's mouth?)
Onos apc...I like it.
Fades with guns...cool
Digging skulks...kinda like zerg burrow? <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
Onos apc...I like it.
Fades with guns...cool
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Yeah, digging skulks was kinda cool.
I still say the Onos APC might as well not exist. It's just as effective to walk behind it, as I said, and it wastes time to unload skulks as you're being shot. Maybe an internal gorge, however, could heal the onos from the inside, and aid in digestion of marines! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
As for fades with guns...Meh. I don't think a fade wildly shooting bullets is something easy to balance.
*Blink through marine base!*
*Shoots marines down as he wildly turns and shoots!*
*Picks up another gun!*
*Blinks out of the base!*
Lather, rinse, repeat.
I realize accuracy isn't the greatest, but marines have less HP than aliens. Plus, Jetpacks might as well not exist, the advantage of being hard to reach now eliminated by stray bullets.
SKULK: (1)<u>Dig</u>. The skulk would basically hit a button (or hold E for 3 seconds or something), and could then dig through walls. It would basically be noclip, would put a 'digestion-like' sprite, or a moving 'crumbles' model over the view, and the skulk would have a 'breath bar' or something. But, he could *VERY SLOWLY* move THROUGH walls. It would make noise, and if the breath bar ran out, the skulk dies instantly, or quickly. How cool would it be to put this to use; talk about new ambushing options, especially when used with Silence.
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No offense, dumb idea. If the setting is on a spaceship, imagine if a skulk was to eat through a wall. Most likely it would be sucked into an endless void(space).
<!--quoteo(post=1619800:date=Apr 9 2007, 12:27 PM:name=StixNStonz)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(StixNStonz @ Apr 9 2007, 12:27 PM) [snapback]1619800[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
(2) <u>Skulks pulling weapons</u>. Perhaps a 2nd hive innate ability. A skulk could look at a dropped weapon, hit e, and then *slowly* drag it backwards, and only backwards. Would be useful for moving that HMG just out of sight, etc.
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This might already happen with source. With rag doll models, a skulk(any alien) could probably attack the dropped weapon and the weapon would launch in the direction.
<!--quoteo(post=1619800:date=Apr 9 2007, 12:27 PM:name=StixNStonz)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(StixNStonz @ Apr 9 2007, 12:27 PM) [snapback]1619800[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
FADE: <u>Fades with Guns</u>. OMG. It sounds ridiculous, and it pretty much is, but it *COULD* be balanced. The fade would +use a dropped gun, and then his swipe would become a very clumsy, much-larger-cone-of-fire use of the weapon. +Movement would still be blink etc, and he couldnt reload, but IMAGINE THIS S***. How crazy would that be to see a goddamn fade blinking around your siege loc with bullets flying into all your marines. Forget MVM; we just gotta equip the fades <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" /> Besides, with enough of an accuracy drain for the FHMG (pronounced 'faychemgee', lol), the marines might actually have an easier time taking him out.
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Worst idea. How would a fade pull a trigger with their claws, let alone hold a high-powered gun. Plus it removes the sense of melee vs ranged weapons that NS has.
<!--quoteo(post=1619800:date=Apr 9 2007, 12:27 PM:name=StixNStonz)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(StixNStonz @ Apr 9 2007, 12:27 PM) [snapback]1619800[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
GORGE: <u>Gorges climbing walls</u>. Hold +use for 5 seconds, and then the gorges gets skulk-like wallwalk, except he goes about 1/4 the speed of normal walk.
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How would a fatty gorge be able to hold itself on a wall?
<!--quoteo(post=1619800:date=Apr 9 2007, 12:27 PM:name=StixNStonz)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(StixNStonz @ Apr 9 2007, 12:27 PM) [snapback]1619800[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
LERK: (1)<u>Lerks perching</u>. Holding +use anywhere.
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If you mean perching by being able to stick itself to a wall/ceiling, I have a semi-appeal for it.
<!--quoteo(post=1619800:date=Apr 9 2007, 12:27 PM:name=StixNStonz)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(StixNStonz @ Apr 9 2007, 12:27 PM) [snapback]1619800[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
(2) Possible additional ability; +movement becomes an evasive tactic. Look for the barrel roll comments in the I&S. Basically, the aim would lock, and the lerk would do a big circle AROUND the crosshair. In essence, he would do this crazy evasive move. You could fly right at a marine, hit this, and have a good chance of making it right to him. Or away. But you'd almost certainly have to lock the crosshair, cuz it would just get too crazy otherwise.
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Lerks can already dodge pretty well, or at least they could in the older patches. Plus they are a support class, not offensive.
<!--quoteo(post=1619800:date=Apr 9 2007, 12:27 PM:name=StixNStonz)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(StixNStonz @ Apr 9 2007, 12:27 PM) [snapback]1619800[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
ONOS: <u>Onos carrying skulks</u>. An onos can eat an HA marine whole, so why cant he fit a skulk or a few into his mouth/stomach like an APC? They could 'see out the front', LOL, and then hop out as they please. Talk about a base rush.
As i said, these are very random ideas. They're not really general 'upgrades', since each is pretty specific to a class and not like Celerity that each class can use.
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Sounds stupid, skulks can go by vents and move faster than an onos. Why would a skulk want to be in an onos' mouth. The onos might be tempted to eat the skulk <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/nerd-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="::nerdy::" border="0" alt="nerd-fix.gif" /> .
<!--quoteo(post=1619800:date=Apr 9 2007, 12:27 PM:name=StixNStonz)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(StixNStonz @ Apr 9 2007, 12:27 PM) [snapback]1619800[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
As such, perhaps instead, there could be the addition of an <u>'Agility Chamber'</u> that would act differently than the others. It would be very expensive, maybe 30 res to drop; you could drop multiple, but you only need 1 to get the full abilities, maybe very one i named just now. None are super amazing, and a lot of people wouldn't even use them. But you could see why it would be beneficial to have them. The agility chambers (ACs) could make also do something like double the jump height of aliens nearby.
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Jumping higher is pointless. Most aliens can get anywhere by themselves. And for the two aliens that can't get anywhere by themselves, a skulk can boost them.
Skulks pulling guns should be probably an innate ability they can do from the begining of the game.
Lerk perching should probably be innate too. I like that idea.
Same with gorge wallwalking. This might be necessary if chamber building on ceilings and walls was permitted as was suggested in a thread below this. You might need to rework their model a little so it didn't look ridiculous seeing a fatty hanging from the ceiling...dropping sporemines LOL.
I could picture them making a disgusting suction cup sound as they walk on the ceiling.
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Those are the three ideas I like. The others... honestly? Well they kind of... suck. Sorry. They would make amusing plugins don't get me wrong, but not for the main game.
I would vote yes for those three innate abilities, provided I knew specifically how they'd be implemented of course.
<img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
Perching lerks... Me thinks of the "stuckabat." Very cool. Squishy gorges wall walking slowly, it would mean a lot for structure placement.
How about skulks being able to normal jump (not leap ability) off walls?
Its insanely underused. Probably also because most people haven't figured out how to use it properly in combat.
Try this: jump at a wall, and in mid-air look in the direction you want to vault. The idea is to jump in that direction as soon as you hit the wall. BUT, heres the common mistake. You need to hold your walk key, i.e. shift. That way, you'll stick to it enough to fully vault; otherwise, holding forward for even a milisecond while looking away from the wall will love the vault.
If done like this, you can bounce from wall to wall down tight corridors. Its not amazing for evading, but when combined with normal bhop, its phenomenal. Marines just dont expect it whatsoever.
Another thread mentioned Slime, and i thought about incorporating the idea into the Agility Chamber. All the aliens were given slight boosts; why not OCs as well? Once the AC is up, OCs not only do damage, but add a slime overlay to the marine being hit. This slime would add roughly 20% opacity with each hit, start dissipating after 3 seconds, over the span of two seconds, stacking up until 80% opacity.
It would be a slight boost, and not really affect the overall balance of OCs.
Re-reading some of these ideas, yes, some are rather far-fetched, but there are some gems as well. An all-affecting but costly Agility Chamber would be a very cool addition to the dynamics of the alien tech tree, and would lead to a debate each round as to whether it should be saved for in the early game or not (since it costs 30 res and gives no 'concrete' upgrades like damage).
Although this limits the power of the idea alot, i think it wud still be fun and add to the atmopshere. wthat the, theyre using our own weapons against us!!!
It could also make the rines more protective of their guns.
I also like the lerk barrel role idea. cos u cud do victory roles at the end of a game.
really nightmare. unbalance the game.
Lerk perching - Increased energy recharge rate?
Fades with guns - As long as they can't reload and have much lower accuracy, I can't see why not. Its not like they couldn't do more damage with swipe anyway.
Pulling weapons - Yeah, needs to be in.
SKULK DRAG: Vote yes. It would be good for baiting marines
FADE GUN: NO!
LERK PERCH: Vote Yes
LERK DEFENSIVE: Vote Yes
GORGE CLIMB: Vote YES
ONOS APC: Unlikiley on PUBS
Alertate FADE: Drop res. Fade is a fast hitting unit that reguarly gets res fast. If the fade zooms back to an alien res node it can dump res (min 10) obtained via kills into it at a 10% tax rate (for every 10 res dumped 1 res is lost). The res goes to which ever player built the Node. If their is no player (orginal node or the player has left) then its divided equally between the team at 20%.
ONOS: Squeeze. The ONOS moves at 1/4 spead and reduces in size to move down narrow corrodors that they could not normaly squeeze through.