The Lerk
edkrst
Join Date: 2009-09-11 Member: 68748Members
Join Date: 2009-09-11 Member: 68748Members
<div class="IPBDescription">"shooting spikes"</div>Has anyone else read the BigDownload interview? One thing that caught my eye was this passage:
"The flying creature you see in the background is the Lerk. He can shoots deadly spikes as well as spore clouds that are good against groups of marines. A little touch we hope to add with the spikes is that if you kill a marine with them and he's near a flat surface, he will fly backwards and become impaled in the wall."
"The flying creature you see in the background is the Lerk. He can shoots deadly spikes as well as spore clouds that are good against groups of marines. A little touch we hope to add with the spikes is that if you kill a marine with them and he's near a flat surface, he will fly backwards and become impaled in the wall."
Comments
i am sure it has replaced bite.
Nope, spikes were mentioned a few month ago on twitter.
Spikes will likely make the lerk in sit some corridor and just keep on firing the marines which doesn't take any more skill than sporing (which is of course very useful, but functionality-wise identical). Now anyone with brains can spore-lerk, but being effective in close combat requires talent. Of course I don't how it will work out in the end, but I'm not excited about this.
So the lerk would still need to get close to marines and do his dodging movements.
The advantage would be that lerks no longer block other lifeforms's attacks, when multiple aliens attack one target.
but seriously, lerk spikes involved NO skill in NS1. Take big rooms for example (ns_nothing hives, except for cargo... cargo is small). Just have some bullsh!t lerk sit in the background and spike nonstop? strafe into view, out of view, into view, out of view - with no limitations or feedback in terms of spike distance or damage reduction. so boring dear god. and if you think about it, somewhat obnoxious - and not in the strategic distraction kind of way. Just fcking stupid. There is no way anyone can say otherwise. it was so stupid. I still can't understand how people get more heated over the devour debate...
I'm assuming the spikes will work shotgun style, where you need to be extremely close to marines. rather I hope because long distance low damage lerk spikes is the fking fail.
More importantly though, how dopey does the lerk looks? His dragging feet makes him look like a baby pterodactyl leaping and gliding around! I don't know what they have in mind in terms of gameplay, but in terms of aesthetics he look absolutely amazing! gj UWE, from what I can tell he looks sick!
I think they also said that the spikes would be a short range weapon, so no pew-pewing from a vent across the next room...and if it's short range only I fully expect that it will be a shotgun-style spike - rapid fire would force the lerk to fly straight at a marine (or using a different flight model, would require the lerk to fly without looking where he's going when he attacks)
"The flying creature you see in the background is the Lerk. He can shoots deadly spikes as well as spore clouds that are good against groups of marines. A little touch we hope to add with the spikes is that if you kill a marine with them and he's near a flat surface, he will fly backwards and become impaled in the wall."<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Definitely like the killing move pin thing. Something like a cool gimmick you get when you play Lerk.
I hope the lerk flight system is changed from the current one. Spiking with it sort of sucks (though biting with it is fine, as was intended). I never really got the hang of the old flight system, but I do remember having lots of fun strafing and dogfighting with Jetpackers in large areas. Bite... not so much.
I remember them saying spikes in NS2 are going to have their range severely limited. So it's actually something between NS1 bite and spike sniping. Lerk is going to be doing bombing runs.
Spikes will likely make the lerk in sit some corridor and just keep on firing the marines which doesn't take any more skill than sporing (which is of course very useful, but functionality-wise identical). Now anyone with brains can spore-lerk, but being effective in close combat requires talent. Of course I don't how it will work out in the end, but I'm not excited about this.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
so i agree, dont want the lerk to be boring pewpew no fun...yah yah wahtever. basically i just wanted to say ps i love you just for your icon!
the black wind howls...
The long and short was that the Lerk was never meant to be a biter and bite was added in fairly late in the patches.
Will the marines bodies, once airborn cause collision damage? Thats my question.
Although fun times in the noob days, sitting in an upper corner of refinery (or similar places) and spiking down a RT for 5 minutes straight. Credit to team!
Spikes will likely make the lerk in sit some corridor and just keep on firing the marines which doesn't take any more skill than sporing (which is of course very useful, but functionality-wise identical). Now anyone with brains can spore-lerk, but being effective in close combat requires talent. Of course I don't how it will work out in the end, but I'm not excited about this.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This saved me some writing so i go ahead and +1 this.
From flavour perspective I like lerk bite much more than lerk spikes. Cooldown on bite attack should take care of "flying skulk" issue.
b0rsuk
I know I really enjoyed the hit-'n-run style of play the lerk provided, but I can't really think of any way with spikes that would be like that. Maybe the spikes could just be another melee attack (stabbing/piercing/ramming) with an alt fire of a weak mid-range attack spread attack with the power of an LMG, but the spread of a HMG? Basicly it should be a weak mid-range attack that has low accuracy to discourage long-range use and low damage to hopefully discourage point-blank use (use the melee attack instead).
Lots of spread, maybe even damage fall-off/bullet drop, and you don't fire a huge chunk of damage all at once. Instead, a moderate amount of damage in quick spurts.
You have to get close and stay close while firing, or come back around for another run.
Now, if firing a spike is a huge event (e.g. it throws the lerk in the other direction to conserve momentum etc) and always knocks the marine a lot, possibly even getting him ever so gently stuck to nearby walls (any movement should free it) then it stops being quite so out of place to affect the rag-doll. I can't see that happening though.
That sounds a bit overkill. I think a good middle-ground is if the spikes had some sort of stopping power (and fired slowly. I really dislike the idea of a machine gun lerk. That just sounds dumb, and impractical, but thats just me), that way the marine really "felt" getting hit, instead of just losing health. Then, this would lend itself to pinning the marine against the wall (if hes close enough to it) once he actually dies. I think messing with the lerk momentum thing is just something that doesn't need to be touched.
I always thought Dystopia does it quite well with the Boltgun. When you get hit with it, it certaintly feels like a heavy hit, and you occasionally get pinned to walls if you're close enough to them (no flying across rooms 15 feet to the wall of course now)
E.g.
Players taps fire:
- Spike volley of duration 0.3s is fired
- 20% Adrenaline is consumed immediately
Player holds down fire:
- Spike volley charges
- 20% Adrenaline is consumed immediately and continues to drain at +10% Adrenaline per second
Player holds down fire indefinitely:
- After 2s, Spike volley is fully charged and is ready for release at whatever time
- After 2s, Adrenaline maximum is now 60% (40% has been consumed by the Spike Volley charge)
//- (option1) Using Lerk flight to consume Adrenaline beyond 60% cancels the charge to free up the remaining 40% of the total Adrenaline
//- (option2) Lerk cannot beat wings beyond 60% of Adrenaline (as 40% is being 'held' by the Spike Volley charge)
Player releases fire after 2s:
- A Spike Volley fires for a duration of 1 second
N.B. Spike Volley is projectile-based, not hitscan (meaning you can more easily dodge incoming attacks if shot from distance).
So the skill would be in managing your flight adrenaline against your Spike Volley adrenaline, avoiding enemy fire and getting in close for concentrated bursts of fire that the enemy cannot really avoid. Spammy attacks give less bang for buck, with charged attacks being more economical but consuming more Adrenaline and leaving less Adrenaline for flight and other abilities. Risk-reward system = fun gameplay.
Then you can't shoot really far, as you can only aim up so high and will hit ceiling trying to get the right arc, and damage is lower.
A shotgun or volley combined with that wouldn't be bad either, though, doesn't matter to me.
Why not have the projectiles lose speed and drop over range, doing less damage as they lose speed?
Then you can't shoot really far, as you can only aim up so high and will hit ceiling trying to get the right arc, and damage is lower.
A shotgun or volley combined with that wouldn't be bad either, though, doesn't matter to me.
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Sorry, but imo arcs are the worst idea. If the spike wouldnt even fly 15 meters straight, then it would be weaker than a blowgun -.-
I fear the lerk losing his rampage potential. let's see how they will work it out...