<!--quoteo(post=1722632:date=Aug 13 2009, 08:44 AM:name=Dead-Inside)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Dead-Inside @ Aug 13 2009, 08:44 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1722632"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I think the best option is to have gravityaffected spikes, and as someoen suggested in a thread (not sure which because I lost it) having a slowfire speed ...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I've gotta say I would be really disappointing if lerk bite was removed from the game. The lerk is what has kept me playing NS for years, I played it back in the spike days and it was ok getting the occasional gimmick kill from the needles. But the bite really brought a whole new dynamic to the lerk game. It allows the lerk to be something other then a gas tosser later in the game. As fun as shooting orange and green clouds across the map is, I enjoy having something to do if someone closes in on me other then running away (even though that's generally the best idea anyway)
Alternate fire modes are being added to the game for a few other things, why not keep bite and add spikes as an alternate fire?
lerk bite was something that only a few people could use while flying, and everyone else just walked around on the ground (like a skulk) to bite... kind of like a walker fade...
It'd be cooler if instead of biting, that it just latched onto a marine and started flapping its wings in female marines's hair to sort of distract her so other aliens can attack...
Also the whole idea of having to press the jump key a lot to get speed to do a glide would need to be changed if spike shooting was only possible while in flight. I'd say make flight automatic... you hold one key and the lerk starts off flying in a straight line with the mouse to determine the direction (which will make the flapping sounds constantly). And when you let go of the flight key... the lerk auto-glides (no more falling out of the sky)... so if you want to land abrubrtly then you need to just look down at the floor to glide to it.
This will free up flight so people can do some shooting. I'm not sure if a hover mode would be needed...
pSyk0mAnNerdish by NatureGermanyJoin Date: 2003-08-07Member: 19166Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Silver, NS2 Community Developer
edited August 2009
I think lerk spikes should work similar to the marine shotgun, so it's most effective in close range.
If you change the melee weapon "bite" to another ranged weapon "spikes", there is no point for the lerk to get close to marines and moreover no point for marines to see a threat in an approaching lerk. Thus it looses it's ability to distract good marines and soak up some bullets in order to help nearby skulks. Also sitting in some vent or on some clorf dodging bullets and spiking farther away marines seems kinda boring to me.
I love flying lerks, but I do wish that they were more viable (worth risking 30 res) in close combat against more than a solitary marine. I never liked spikes because they forced me to sit still, and I am convinced that the devs can find a way to implement skill based ranged combat that works to the lerk's strengths.
I very much approve of the suggestions to make the ranged attack obey gravity, and agree that the attack should probably have higher damage and a lower rate of fire compared to the old spikes.
Why spikes?
Sure, the lerk had them before, but they're an unrealistic weapon for the situation. Machine guns on WWII planes were used primarily in air to air combat. Strafing ground targets was either about doing damage (ie to grounded enemy planes) or area of effect against infantry. The best weapon against a priority target on the ground is a bomb or a missile. Something tells me guided missiles are out for NS2...
All the other Kharaa missile weapons (parasite aside) are either gaseous or liquid.
Why not give the lerk a liquid cannon/bomb? It could be between acid rocket and bile bomb in velocity and gravitational arc, but do 50+ damage with a small splash radius and a cool down.
1) Shoot and forget: I swoop into a room, glance around, take aim at the nearest marine and fire. I can now focus on getting out alive again.
2) Skill based: Aiming is hard, with both the lerk and the target moving, and the missile can be dodged.
The liquid missile does damage in melee range just fine for those who want to pancake. It can be used to (slowly) bomb structures to help harrass marine resources. A good lerk would never touch the ground.
An idea if lerks will be helping to fill the scout role: The lerk attack could include a 30 second parasite effect. It would make lerks a powerful suport and scouting tool and encourage them to engage often.
I guess a good example of what I'm thinking of would be the space bombers in Battlefront II. You fire (accounting for gravity) and then immediately go into a lengthy series of spins and evasive maneuvers because somebody is shooting at out and you want to survive long enough to fire at something again. Flying straight at a target is suicide, since it makes you a sitting target for enemy guns and missiles, but a skilled bomber pilot can squeeze off a shot with minimal time to aim and focus on defense.
i dont know if anyone brought this up yet or not but um...
in order to keep the lerks aggressive the bite was implemented, that way they didn't just spike from a distance...
i always thought that a spread pattern shot would solve this. similar to shotgun but with only 2 (maybe a few more) spikes.
that way the lerk spike would do more damage close up but be useless far away. the lerk could spike rts or rines or structures down from a vent but only if the vent was close enough.
plus, you could still keep the bite, to me something with that many teeth is gunna bite someone! make spikes the alt fire and bite the primary fire. everyone's happy.
locallyunsceneFeeder of TrollsJoin Date: 2002-12-25Member: 11528Members, Constellation
<!--quoteo(post=1723890:date=Aug 20 2009, 02:48 PM:name=schumacher343)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (schumacher343 @ Aug 20 2009, 02:48 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1723890"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->i dont know if anyone brought this up yet or not but um...
in order to keep the lerks aggressive the bite was implemented, that way they didn't just spike from a distance...
i always thought that a spread pattern shot would solve this. similar to shotgun but with only 2 (maybe a few more) spikes.
that way the lerk spike would do more damage close up but be useless far away. the lerk could spike rts or rines or structures down from a vent but only if the vent was close enough.
plus, you could still keep the bite, to me something with that many teeth is gunna bite someone! make spikes the alt fire and bite the primary fire. everyone's happy.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> lerk shotgun spike is an interesting idea. It would fit with its 'area-of-effect' style of support.
When Lerk Spikes as shotgun was mentioned, I can't help but think of the cartoon "Roughnecks: Starship Troopers". For those that know it, in the Hydora campaign, there's a flying bug that basically vomits a shotgun like blast of 6-9 spikes. It looks terribly cool when they do it, and if NS2 goes this way, I can't say as I'd mind one bit.
edit: Hah! Found a clip: <a href="http://www.spike.com/video/roughnecks-starship/2674846" target="_blank">http://www.spike.com/video/roughnecks-starship/2674846</a> About 57 seconds in or so.
I like the idea of spikes working like a shotgun, one click should fire off around 25 spikes, give it a fairly large spread so if used at long range only 5/25 spikes hit. Obviously the closer you are the more hits your going to get and because all 25 fire at once you won't need to fly at the marine for longer than you would to bite.
I think were missing one key piece of information. Just like the devs said for the Onos, their trying to disambiguify the roles of the various aliens. That being said, the lerks role in NS1 is probably the most ambiguous of any alien. Its fast/flies so it should scout, It has umbra,spores, and primal scream so it should be offensive support, It has a mean bite so it should be a direct attacker...
We have no idea what the devs want its intended role to be in NS2. If they keep spores/umbra and turn the bite into a ranged/low damage spike attack I'm thinking they want it to be an offensive support class.
Bite on Lerk was what made it fun. The swooping in, taking a chunk of wayward marine back into a close vent and waiting for the next time to attack is what made it fun.
Not only was it fun to fly (dive, fly, graceful flight, whizzing by and the bite making it personal) but you are missing the psychological aspect of the game.
It bothered the marines to have something flying around them, marines trying to aim at a flying target and not bothering the skulks rushing in. Harassment of the marines put them on edge.
With just having spikes, there would be no reason to not just sit in a vent and spike, even if you raised the damage the closer you were.
If you don't want to get up close and dirty, you wouldn't be an alien in the first place.
The Gorge is the only one that needs to be a distance alien.
They were talking about short-range spikes. Short-range in an indoors environment won't be 50 meters, more like 2-5 meters. I imagine you'll still need to fly towards the marine to cause any significant damage.
Haha Jetflax, you may very well be the reason they are removing lerk bite...you pwn WAAAAAY too much with it :P Seriosuly, as soon as this guy goes lerk even the comm says "gg f4".
I do think the Lerk needs to be able to hold its own in a fight. And getting up close and personal with marines. Low range/high damage spikes is a good way to do that, so that gets my vote.. But I'm not gonna lie. I'd like to keep bite.
I was never a fan of the old flight model but i really loved the current Lerk flight model that NS1 has now but was sad to see the spikes go. I never understood why a Lerk should be forced to go into melee range to use its primary weapon as a support class. To me a Lerk with bite was looked upon as more of a flying skulk with marginaly more harmor and HP and did not really warrent 30 res just to get 1 hitted by a shotty.
I used to play the lerk more as a support class only using Bite for structures and as a last resort, i prefered to support the team with spores and umbra and fly overhead primal screaming to boost my teammates effectiveness.
I therefore see the removal of Lerk bite and the re-introduction of the spikes as a good thing as it moves the Lerk back into the support role in my mind (unless they remove all the other aformentioned skills).
The main issue most people seem to bring up is the fact that a complex flight model will be required for a Lerk to fly in close quarters with a marine and use a directed (if indeed it is a directed) spike attack whilst performing evasive manouvers that would be necessary to keep a frail Lerk alive in such quarters.
I have been pondering this for a few days and i have come up with flight model that although i do not have the software / skills to produce and test such a model i can not see any problems with it and it looks as though it covers everything required to fly, manouver and change direction whilst tracking a target. The layout i used myself was very similar to the controls of NS1 aliens but with a few more buttons required. Here is what i was thinking.
Mouse Left Mouse Button - Fire Spike(s) Right Mouse Button - enter close quarters mode when held down (see below)
Keyboard Normal Flight
As current NS1 3.04 Lerk flight
Keyboard Close quarters mode
W - Pitch Down (or sink depending on requirements) S - Pitch Up (or rise depending on requiremenets) A - Turn Left D - turn Right Space - Accelerate (let go to slow down)
The mouse movemenet in close quarters mode would be as in a "head cam" where movement can be restricted to either 120 or 180 degrees or unrestricted for 360 degrees pivot centered in the direction of forward movement.
I realise that this will take alot of skill to master but then i think thats a good thing to require skill to use something to its full potential.
Anyway i've gone way off topic here but just wanted to put my idea out there.
the goal is to make lerk spikes a quick, offensive ability that requires skill, tactical thinking and speed. I think of the lerk as a hit and runner, but also as main ranged backbone of the aliens.
1. spikes fly extremely fast, no, make them bullet like. 2. the spikes gain damage by the lerks velocity, a sitting lerk will only do 2-3 damage, a full wildly flapping lerk flying straight down should make 13 damage perk spike. 3. spikes do almost no armor damage, making the lerk rely on spores or teammates to tear down armor. 4. spikes are fired in salvos of 4, 1 second between them. there should be a cone of fire when flying fast, and none when standing still. max damage in one dive is 52. the cone of fire forces the lerk to move in closer, personaly I prefer a cone of fire where atleast some shots can hit and do damage over a limited range with damage falloff.
5. primary: 4 spikes fired in a salvo, 1 second recharge and middle adren cost. secondary: 1 large spike who travels in the air with long range, armor damage and huge cone of fire when moving. costs all adren. and has long recharge time.
example:
the lerk has been following the squad for a while now, sporing them repeately from vents, retreating before the shotgunners could turn around. he knew that the marines dont have much armor left, and as they moved in a RT room and started building, he spored them the last time, breaking their armor finaly. he changed positions as they were shooting the vent he spored them, and gained speed in the vent. on the other side of the room he burst out of another vent, sending salvos of spikes raining down on the enemy, 1 of the 5 died due the spores already attacked his health, and a full 52 damage did the rest to him. the lerk was flying crazely around the room, trying to keep distance from the shotgunners, diving in on the builders and LMGers, penetrating them upclose to do as much damage as possible. he took some shots, and the fight attracted a pack of skulks who now attacked the marines who were focused on shooting down the lerk above them, realizing their demise too late. with a final salvo the lerk killed the last survivor who managed to run out of the room. the gorges came and took the room, also healing the brave lerk.
the cone of fire restricts sniping, the damage amplication rewards skilled flying, and the no armor spikes encourage teamwork and/or tactics.
Interesting thought, making spikes dependent on the lerk's velocity, but I don't think it would work very well in practice - especially against structures. Also, your damage output needs to be raised significantly; you can't guarantee that all your shots in a strafing run will hit (maybe 75% on average, less against a fast moving target like a jetpacker) with good damage (some of the shots will be farther away - less damage)
Also, attacks that use all your adren would be impossible to use if the flight model also uses adren (or would make it hard to escape after)
shotgun spikes. that is a novel idea. fits with the "strafing run" thing too. i like it. it's either that, or the 'damage drops off over distance' idea, which sorta makes sense. wind resistance and all. but there'd need to be some kind of visual cue to go with it.
It'd be cooler if instead of biting, that it just latched onto a marine and started flapping its wings in female marines's hair to sort of distract her so other aliens can attack...
---------------------------------- <!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->i always thought that a spread pattern shot would solve this. similar to shotgun but with only 2 (maybe a few more) spikes.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I like the idea of short range spikes, that have a fall off via gravity, not damage. Alt Fire, would be cool if, full energy and no tech/chambers etc, you could do 2 shotgun-like burst shots; As if the lerk were startled, it could do a huge burst then flap away; 2 bursts, tho would sap too much energy for it to fly away.
alt-fire to spore and umbra could be a local area of effect, consistant with gorges local AoE heal. Maybe the new umbra could be a dark black fog, so it has inked the air (aww you made me ink), but aliens see thru it via some sort of shared alien hive/vision but marines wouldn't be able to see thru it, and also shooting thru it has the same sort of umbra effects (most bullets miss/deflect/absorb)
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->make spikes the alt fire and bite the primary fire.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I think the flight model should be changed. This is the "standard" flight model for flight simulators, and I think it would give the lerk a great deal more realistic movement and acrobatics. It would allow for barrerrolls and sharp turns. With the improved and easier to use flight model I'd be glad to see collision damage and higher speed brought back. It shouldn't be that hard to master the air, but if you are careless and go to fast, you should become a splat on the wall if you crash.
x,y,z axis for the lerk model; x left-right, y up-down, z forward-backward
W/S moves you along the z axis.
A/D revolves you around the y axis. While grounded moves along x axis (strafing)
Mouse up/down revolves you around the x axis.
Mouse left/right revolves you around the z axis. While grounded revolves you around the y axis (looking)
Space gives thrust, accelerate or brake according to current movement and W/S, hold to glide. Jump while grounded.
As someone said, it would be lovely with "acid bomb" for the lerk, and kind of suited to. Lower damage (about half), but damage to marines also (slightly smaller splash). If it took like 60% adrenaline to fire you couldn't instantly kill someone, but would have to make two runs. This would make you able to do swift hit & run attacks, but require skill to hit moving target if you don't get very close. With some momentum you'd be able to toss it quite far, thus keeping you from hiding and sniping from a vent. I'd say keep bite but add the acid bomb. Then you would have Spore for harrasing (it's still there right?), acid bomb for hit & run and bite for finnishing/structures.
Bite should be replaced with an ability to knock marines over with the lerk's talons, or at least put them off balance. That way the lerk's flight isn't hindered as they push off the target, and possibly push the enemy down a bottomless pit, haha. It would be a great ability to help fellow aliens to get closer as the marine corrects himself.
I also agree with the few people that mentioned that the spikes should be subjected to gravity. The longer you hold down the attack button the more distance and damage the "powering up" projectile can make. That way the lerk doesn't have a spam weapon that can travel any distance, though it would be interesting if the alt fire for spike was a zoom in option; like a scope sight for their eyes.
schkorpioI can mspaintJoin Date: 2003-05-23Member: 16635Members
<!--quoteo(post=1725431:date=Aug 29 2009, 09:10 AM:name=Fluid Core)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Fluid Core @ Aug 29 2009, 09:10 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1725431"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I think the flight model should be changed. This is the "standard" flight model for flight simulators,<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
yeah but whos got time to learn a bird or bat simulator!
im kinda hoping that lerks get DOT bile bomb, so you can do a boming run and leave the mess behind
<!--quoteo(post=1725451:date=Aug 29 2009, 03:53 AM:name=JAmazon)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (JAmazon @ Aug 29 2009, 03:53 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1725451"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->HAHA or gorge carrying ability for team oriented bile bombing runs. That was a hilarious plug in.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Current NS1 lerk is very good, and I personally prefer bite but spikes <i>could be worked out</i> too as long as they are short-range and effective. Maybe it will become like a fighter plane doing its "bomb runs".
<!--quoteo(post=1725314:date=Aug 28 2009, 03:47 PM:name=resresres)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (resresres @ Aug 28 2009, 03:47 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1725314"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I like the idea of short range spikes, that have a fall off via gravity, not damage.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> But I'd say that'd make people hang back and fire sort of like artillery, since it'd be harder to aim while moving. And if you don't make the drop-off drastic enough, there's no point to having it at all.
Another way you could do the 'shot gun' spike effect is this. Sort of like a 'machine gun' with a very large cone of fire. So its a high rate of fire repeating spikes (with low damage for each individual spike, but DPS if every spike hit would be nothing to laugh at), but primarily effective at close range due to the very large cone of fire. Actually you could have that as MOUSE1, and MOUSE2 would be the 'shotgun'-esque burst fire. Thoughts?
Comments
Lerk crap?
Alternate fire modes are being added to the game for a few other things, why not keep bite and add spikes as an alternate fire?
It'd be cooler if instead of biting, that it just latched onto a marine and started flapping its wings in female marines's hair to sort of distract her so other aliens can attack...
Also the whole idea of having to press the jump key a lot to get speed to do a glide would need to be changed if spike shooting was only possible while in flight. I'd say make flight automatic... you hold one key and the lerk starts off flying in a straight line with the mouse to determine the direction (which will make the flapping sounds constantly). And when you let go of the flight key... the lerk auto-glides (no more falling out of the sky)... so if you want to land abrubrtly then you need to just look down at the floor to glide to it.
This will free up flight so people can do some shooting. I'm not sure if a hover mode would be needed...
If you change the melee weapon "bite" to another ranged weapon "spikes", there is no point for the lerk to get close to marines and moreover no point for marines to see a threat in an approaching lerk.
Thus it looses it's ability to distract good marines and soak up some bullets in order to help nearby skulks.
Also sitting in some vent or on some clorf dodging bullets and spiking farther away marines seems kinda boring to me.
I very much approve of the suggestions to make the ranged attack obey gravity, and agree that the attack should probably have higher damage and a lower rate of fire compared to the old spikes.
Why spikes?
Sure, the lerk had them before, but they're an unrealistic weapon for the situation. Machine guns on WWII planes were used primarily in air to air combat. Strafing ground targets was either about doing damage (ie to grounded enemy planes) or area of effect against infantry. The best weapon against a priority target on the ground is a bomb or a missile. Something tells me guided missiles are out for NS2...
All the other Kharaa missile weapons (parasite aside) are either gaseous or liquid.
Why not give the lerk a liquid cannon/bomb? It could be between acid rocket and bile bomb in velocity and gravitational arc, but do 50+ damage with a small splash radius and a cool down.
1) Shoot and forget: I swoop into a room, glance around, take aim at the nearest marine and fire. I can now focus on getting out alive again.
2) Skill based: Aiming is hard, with both the lerk and the target moving, and the missile can be dodged.
The liquid missile does damage in melee range just fine for those who want to pancake. It can be used to (slowly) bomb structures to help harrass marine resources. A good lerk would never touch the ground.
An idea if lerks will be helping to fill the scout role: The lerk attack could include a 30 second parasite effect. It would make lerks a powerful suport and scouting tool and encourage them to engage often.
Roach [NGC]
in order to keep the lerks aggressive the bite was implemented, that way they didn't just spike from a distance...
i always thought that a spread pattern shot would solve this. similar to shotgun but with only 2 (maybe a few more) spikes.
that way the lerk spike would do more damage close up but be useless far away.
the lerk could spike rts or rines or structures down from a vent but only if the vent was close enough.
plus, you could still keep the bite,
to me something with that many teeth is gunna bite someone!
make spikes the alt fire and bite the primary fire.
everyone's happy.
in order to keep the lerks aggressive the bite was implemented, that way they didn't just spike from a distance...
i always thought that a spread pattern shot would solve this. similar to shotgun but with only 2 (maybe a few more) spikes.
that way the lerk spike would do more damage close up but be useless far away.
the lerk could spike rts or rines or structures down from a vent but only if the vent was close enough.
plus, you could still keep the bite,
to me something with that many teeth is gunna bite someone!
make spikes the alt fire and bite the primary fire.
everyone's happy.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
lerk shotgun spike is an interesting idea. It would fit with its 'area-of-effect' style of support.
edit: Hah! Found a clip: <a href="http://www.spike.com/video/roughnecks-starship/2674846" target="_blank">http://www.spike.com/video/roughnecks-starship/2674846</a> About 57 seconds in or so.
We have no idea what the devs want its intended role to be in NS2. If they keep spores/umbra and turn the bite into a ranged/low damage spike attack I'm thinking they want it to be an offensive support class.
Not only was it fun to fly (dive, fly, graceful flight, whizzing by and the bite making it personal) but you are missing the psychological aspect of the game.
It bothered the marines to have something flying around them, marines trying to aim at a flying target and not bothering the skulks rushing in. Harassment of the marines put them on edge.
With just having spikes, there would be no reason to not just sit in a vent and spike, even if you raised the damage the closer you were.
If you don't want to get up close and dirty, you wouldn't be an alien in the first place.
The Gorge is the only one that needs to be a distance alien.
p.s. Keep up the good work!
Short-range in an indoors environment won't be 50 meters, more like 2-5 meters.
I imagine you'll still need to fly towards the marine to cause any significant damage.
Low range/high damage spikes is a good way to do that, so that gets my vote.. But I'm not gonna lie. I'd like to keep bite.
I used to play the lerk more as a support class only using Bite for structures and as a last resort, i prefered to support the team with spores and umbra and fly overhead primal screaming to boost my teammates effectiveness.
I therefore see the removal of Lerk bite and the re-introduction of the spikes as a good thing as it moves the Lerk back into the support role in my mind (unless they remove all the other aformentioned skills).
The main issue most people seem to bring up is the fact that a complex flight model will be required for a Lerk to fly in close quarters with a marine and use a directed (if indeed it is a directed) spike attack whilst performing evasive manouvers that would be necessary to keep a frail Lerk alive in such quarters.
I have been pondering this for a few days and i have come up with flight model that although i do not have the software / skills to produce and test such a model i can not see any problems with it and it looks as though it covers everything required to fly, manouver and change direction whilst tracking a target. The layout i used myself was very similar to the controls of NS1 aliens but with a few more buttons required. Here is what i was thinking.
Mouse
Left Mouse Button - Fire Spike(s)
Right Mouse Button - enter close quarters mode when held down (see below)
Keyboard
Normal Flight
As current NS1 3.04 Lerk flight
Keyboard
Close quarters mode
W - Pitch Down (or sink depending on requirements)
S - Pitch Up (or rise depending on requiremenets)
A - Turn Left
D - turn Right
Space - Accelerate (let go to slow down)
The mouse movemenet in close quarters mode would be as in a "head cam" where movement can be restricted to either 120 or 180 degrees or unrestricted for 360 degrees pivot centered in the direction of forward movement.
I realise that this will take alot of skill to master but then i think thats a good thing to require skill to use something to its full potential.
Anyway i've gone way off topic here but just wanted to put my idea out there.
Thanks
(edited for spelling - and is probably still bad)
I think of the lerk as a hit and runner, but also as main ranged backbone of the aliens.
1. spikes fly extremely fast, no, make them bullet like.
2. the spikes gain damage by the lerks velocity, a sitting lerk will only do 2-3 damage, a full wildly flapping lerk flying straight down should make 13 damage perk spike.
3. spikes do almost no armor damage, making the lerk rely on spores or teammates to tear down armor.
4. spikes are fired in salvos of 4, 1 second between them. there should be a cone of fire when flying fast, and none when standing still. max damage in one dive is 52.
the cone of fire forces the lerk to move in closer, personaly I prefer a cone of fire where atleast some shots can hit and do damage over a limited range with damage falloff.
5. primary: 4 spikes fired in a salvo, 1 second recharge and middle adren cost. secondary: 1 large spike who travels in the air with long range, armor damage and huge cone of fire when moving. costs all adren. and has long recharge time.
example:
the lerk has been following the squad for a while now, sporing them repeately from vents, retreating before the shotgunners could turn around. he knew that the marines dont have much armor left, and as they moved in a RT room and started building, he spored them the last time, breaking their armor finaly. he changed positions as they were shooting the vent he spored them, and gained speed in the vent. on the other side of the room he burst out of another vent, sending salvos of spikes raining down on the enemy, 1 of the 5 died due the spores already attacked his health, and a full 52 damage did the rest to him. the lerk was flying crazely around the room, trying to keep distance from the shotgunners, diving in on the builders and LMGers, penetrating them upclose to do as much damage as possible. he took some shots, and the fight attracted a pack of skulks who now attacked the marines who were focused on shooting down the lerk above them, realizing their demise too late. with a final salvo the lerk killed the last survivor who managed to run out of the room. the gorges came and took the room, also healing the brave lerk.
the cone of fire restricts sniping, the damage amplication rewards skilled flying, and the no armor spikes encourage teamwork and/or tactics.
Also, attacks that use all your adren would be impossible to use if the flight model also uses adren (or would make it hard to escape after)
it's either that, or the 'damage drops off over distance' idea, which sorta makes sense. wind resistance and all. but there'd need to be some kind of visual cue to go with it.
then you could do sweet tricks like barrel rolls by clicking right or left mouse button really fast.
It'd be cooler if instead of biting, that it just latched onto a marine and started flapping its wings in female marines's hair to sort of distract her so other aliens can attack...
...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
:D
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<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->i always thought that a spread pattern shot would solve this. similar to shotgun but with only 2 (maybe a few more) spikes.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I like the idea of short range spikes, that have a fall off via gravity, not damage.
Alt Fire, would be cool if, full energy and no tech/chambers etc, you could do 2 shotgun-like burst shots; As if the lerk were startled, it could do a huge burst then flap away; 2 bursts, tho would sap too much energy for it to fly away.
alt-fire to spore and umbra could be a local area of effect, consistant with gorges local AoE heal.
Maybe the new umbra could be a dark black fog, so it has inked the air (aww you made me ink), but aliens see thru it via some sort of shared alien hive/vision
but marines wouldn't be able to see thru it, and also shooting thru it has the same sort of umbra effects (most bullets miss/deflect/absorb)
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->make spikes the alt fire and bite the primary fire.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
-1. No!
x,y,z axis for the lerk model; x left-right, y up-down, z forward-backward
W/S moves you along the z axis.
A/D revolves you around the y axis. While grounded moves along x axis (strafing)
Mouse up/down revolves you around the x axis.
Mouse left/right revolves you around the z axis. While grounded revolves you around the y axis (looking)
Space gives thrust, accelerate or brake according to current movement and W/S, hold to glide. Jump while grounded.
As someone said, it would be lovely with "acid bomb" for the lerk, and kind of suited to. Lower damage (about half), but damage to marines also (slightly smaller splash). If it took like 60% adrenaline to fire you couldn't instantly kill someone, but would have to make two runs. This would make you able to do swift hit & run attacks, but require skill to hit moving target if you don't get very close. With some momentum you'd be able to toss it quite far, thus keeping you from hiding and sniping from a vent. I'd say keep bite but add the acid bomb. Then you would have Spore for harrasing (it's still there right?), acid bomb for hit & run and bite for finnishing/structures.
I also agree with the few people that mentioned that the spikes should be subjected to gravity. The longer you hold down the attack button the more distance and damage the "powering up" projectile can make. That way the lerk doesn't have a spam weapon that can travel any distance, though it would be interesting if the alt fire for spike was a zoom in option; like a scope sight for their eyes.
yeah but whos got time to learn a bird or bat simulator!
im kinda hoping that lerks get DOT bile bomb, so you can do a boming run and leave the mess behind
Ahhh memories :)
Maybe give bite to mouse2?
But I'd say that'd make people hang back and fire sort of like artillery, since it'd be harder to aim while moving. And if you don't make the drop-off drastic enough, there's no point to having it at all.
Another way you could do the 'shot gun' spike effect is this. Sort of like a 'machine gun' with a very large cone of fire. So its a high rate of fire repeating spikes (with low damage for each individual spike, but DPS if every spike hit would be nothing to laugh at), but primarily effective at close range due to the very large cone of fire. Actually you could have that as MOUSE1, and MOUSE2 would be the 'shotgun'-esque burst fire. Thoughts?