Skulk vs res towers

Namron · August 2009

<div class="IPBDescription">Eating res less boring</div>I went off topic about this in that taser thread:

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Namron @ Jul 26 2009, 03:52 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1719380"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'>Make a parasite from one skulk continuously dish out minor damage to the tower (story explanation: The parasite feeds upon the nanite flow and grows, destroying the tower). Make a second parasite from another skulk together with the first parasite from the first skulk continuously dish out even more damage and so on. Only one parasite per player is allowed (story explanation: Parasites from the same skulk breed, origin, doesn't get along). Welding a res tower acts as a parasite cleanse [health at red; all parasites are left, at yellow; half the parasites, at green; no parasites]. Hive sight should show how many parasites there are in a res tower. Conclusion: In this way, aliens have a way to destroy far-away, unattended res towers - without the NS1 boredom, giving them the possibility to both "eat res" and play the game and have fun. Since many parasites are required to do meaningful continuous damage, the skulks will have to act as a team.</div>

slayer20 · August 2009

I think the devs said that RTs would be much stronger in NS2.

So yeah, it'll get a little boring after awhile if one skulk is doing all the work alone on one RT.

reasa · August 2009

How much stronger? Would it still be possible for one player to destroy a res tower or is it now considered a team effort?

MuYeah · August 2009

From what I gather the role of resource towers has changed a little. Obviously they still gather res but they will also function as a zone-control mechanism and extend the marine's power-grid and will have extra durability. It remains to be seen how often skulks will be on res biting duty, but I do agree that it's one of the most boring aspects (but one of the most important) of gameplay in NS1.

An ability like you suggest would be a good solution to it in NS1. I would give skulks the ability to stack their parasite damage on buildings though and make sure it gives the same damage per energy spent as bite, so a skulk could stack a few parasites and then begin biting the tower and would kill the tower in the same amount of time as just biting.

The important difference is it would give them the ability to ambush any incoming marines while still dealing significant damage to the resource tower. If the parasite was a damage-over-time effect lasting 15 seconds or so, disrupting the skulk from biting would still give the marine a reason to attempt to defend it and potentially save it.

Last we saw, though, individual abilities use different pools of energy and with that type of energy system my implementation is basically defunct.

Edit: Sorry, I forgot to mention another change I would make to your original idea, and its that only one skulks could stack parasites on the resouce tower. The reason for this is due to scalability with the number of players in the game. In your average 6v6 game, it isn't usually a good idea to have a lot of skulks leave your current defended position and would leave the one or two skulks doing subpar damage to an RT, whereas in a large 16v16 game you have a ton of skulks able to just run around parasiting all the marine res towers and completely destroy them. With the change I suggested the damage is the same if you bit the RT or parasited it, so in a large game you could still have the teamwork of perhaps an adren skulk dedicated to parasiting the node while the rest of the skulks bit it.

RobB · August 2009

I start to believe that the Devs are suffering from a mild to medium shizophrenia, while removing the "boring" slashy-slashy from the marines, they dump even more boringness on little doggies back.
just hope that gorges are better fitted to destroy buildings when skulks are hunters / weak defense only now.

commofdoom · August 2009

biting res nodes was acceptable with the old rt hitbox and marines had to come within a few feet to shoot you, giving you a good chance to kill them. now you just die as soon as a marine can see the rt, don't even have to use nades. Biting RT's down is by far the most boring thing in the game, there's no personal reward for doing so and it takes 2 minutes.

locallyunscene · August 2009

I think someone suggested it for marines to use on kharaa rts, but I like the idea of of having different set and distinct parts of the rt that have to be destroyed in order for the RT to be destroyed. You could also combine this with the idea someone else had to make damaged rts gather less and it would be an intuitive visual indicator of the damage level and production of rts that would add some resource management to the game.

Pros:
Biting RTs is more interesting
Allows for good players to plan out which pieces to bite first to avoid exposure
Cons:
Makes it harder to kill rts partially protected by turrets
Makes it harder to kill turrets in general

Shalrath · August 2009

What about the Skulk 'grapple' ability basically tearing the RT apart faster the longer you do it? Therefore stacking four skulks could rip one down quickly, but leaving a single Skulk alone on it for a minute or two is a guaranteed destroy for the skulk.

General_Warhammer · August 2009

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Shalrath @ Aug 9 2009, 12:56 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1721711"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'>What about the Skulk 'grapple' ability basically tearing the RT apart faster the longer you do it? Therefore stacking four skulks could rip one down quickly, but leaving a single Skulk alone on it for a minute or two is a guaranteed destroy for the skulk.</div>

I really like this idea. It would definately be cool to see a bunch of skulks ripping down an rt via grapple bite.

NeoSniper · August 2009

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (locallyunscene @ Aug 6 2009, 08:57 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1720964"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'>I think someone suggested it for marines to use on kharaa rts, but I like the idea of of having different set and distinct parts of the rt that have to be destroyed in order for the RT to be destroyed. You could also combine this with the idea someone else had to make damaged rts gather less and it would be an intuitive visual indicator of the damage level and production of rts that would add some resource management to the game.

Pros:
Biting RTs is more interesting
Allows for good players to plan out which pieces to bite first to avoid exposure
Cons:
Makes it harder to kill rts partially protected by turrets
Makes it harder to kill turrets in general</div>

I think I read that one. Something about the alien RTs having like a ring of eyes. I really like the idea of location bonus damage. And it may work better for aliens.

I like that the lone skulk could just work his way around the RT quickly breaking of certain pieces (doing Terrible Terrible Damage!) but if the RT is defended from one side then no going around and you will have to take longer.

Skulk vs res towers

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