Viewing the Lerk with a fighter/bomber airplane analogy
thefonz
Join Date: 2011-06-22 Member: 105847Members
Join Date: 2011-06-22 Member: 105847Members
<div class="IPBDescription">I think I see where UWE is trying to go here.</div>So lets talk about some recent changes to the Lerk.
<ul><li>Spore clouds now descend downward. Encourages Lerk to fly above marines while gassing them.</li><li>Bile Bomb moved to Lerk. Only useable in the air (goofy and unintuitive to me, but I figured it out alright eventually). Slight forward arc to the shot.</li><li>Lerk flight has been getting better and easier! Rock on UWE!</li></ul>
Now think about air planes from the WW2 era. For the less historically nerdy that would be, Spitfires, BF-109 Messerschmitts, P 51-D Mustangs, Zeros (not really ground attack but I'm trying to mention all the major players in WW2), (somebody fill in a Russian one for me), ect. Possibly the best to consider (of the ones I know) would would be the German Stuka dive bomber.
After thinking about these planes and how simmilar they are to the Lerk, things are making more sense. Possibly more importantly, I like. I really<i>really</i> like.
<ul><li>Spikes = Strafeing Runs (sorta, airplanes can't hover/roost/sit on the ground)</li><li>Gas = Bombing Run</li><li>Bile Bomb = Dive Bombing</li></ul>
It seems to me that UWE wants the Lerk to be an old school fighter/bomber (aka ground attack) plane. When I think about the Lerk from this perspective, the recent changes not only make sense, they are <b>AWESOME!</b> More importantly I think that this will/can be tuned for great game play from both the Alien and Marine perspective.
I hope this post has helped people see the Lerk in a new light. It may not be exactly as UWE in-visions it to be, but I think its is a good general description. Thinking about the Lerk this way has really changed my view of the lerk. It was my least favorite life form before, by a mile and a half (maybe because I suck with it :P ). Now, I love it even though I still suck as a Lerk (now I've got areason to get better though!).Below is a link to another post of mine discussing the new Lerk and some changes I think should be made to the Lerk and level design in general that would benefit the Lerk and how it is played / fought against.
<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=117107" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/in...howtopic=117107</a>
<ul><li>Spore clouds now descend downward. Encourages Lerk to fly above marines while gassing them.</li><li>Bile Bomb moved to Lerk. Only useable in the air (goofy and unintuitive to me, but I figured it out alright eventually). Slight forward arc to the shot.</li><li>Lerk flight has been getting better and easier! Rock on UWE!</li></ul>
Now think about air planes from the WW2 era. For the less historically nerdy that would be, Spitfires, BF-109 Messerschmitts, P 51-D Mustangs, Zeros (not really ground attack but I'm trying to mention all the major players in WW2), (somebody fill in a Russian one for me), ect. Possibly the best to consider (of the ones I know) would would be the German Stuka dive bomber.
After thinking about these planes and how simmilar they are to the Lerk, things are making more sense. Possibly more importantly, I like. I really<i>really</i> like.
<ul><li>Spikes = Strafeing Runs (sorta, airplanes can't hover/roost/sit on the ground)</li><li>Gas = Bombing Run</li><li>Bile Bomb = Dive Bombing</li></ul>
It seems to me that UWE wants the Lerk to be an old school fighter/bomber (aka ground attack) plane. When I think about the Lerk from this perspective, the recent changes not only make sense, they are <b>AWESOME!</b> More importantly I think that this will/can be tuned for great game play from both the Alien and Marine perspective.
I hope this post has helped people see the Lerk in a new light. It may not be exactly as UWE in-visions it to be, but I think its is a good general description. Thinking about the Lerk this way has really changed my view of the lerk. It was my least favorite life form before, by a mile and a half (maybe because I suck with it :P ). Now, I love it even though I still suck as a Lerk (now I've got areason to get better though!).Below is a link to another post of mine discussing the new Lerk and some changes I think should be made to the Lerk and level design in general that would benefit the Lerk and how it is played / fought against.
<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=117107" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/in...howtopic=117107</a>
Comments
Repost:
<img src="http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/2742/lerkbomber.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
His main issue currently would be survivability an/or bile bomb DPS being too low. I think just buffing the latter would already go a long way in making lerk bombing runs viable. (Currently spike almost deals as much damage as the bile bomb, forcing him to stay around longer rather than being able to just hit and run effectively)
If it takes a good player to make a 30 res upgrade "really rock," it's not quite tuned up enough. A scrub marine, with a flame thrower or a grenade launcher, can seriously mess up somebody's day, and when <i>he</i> dies his buddy can pick that weapon back up.
Yeah, we should really consider revisiting that mechanic now that hit detection and framerates have improved significantly... Balancing two lifeforms of equal resource costs tends to end badly when one of them can just run to its old corpse and get all its upgrades back for free.
<!--quoteo(post=1914192:date=Mar 17 2012, 08:23 AM:name=Techercizer)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Techercizer @ Mar 17 2012, 08:23 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1914192"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Yeah, we should really consider revisiting that mechanic now that hit detection and framerates have improved significantly... Balancing two lifeforms of equal resource costs tends to end badly when one of them can just run to its old corpse and get all its upgrades back for free.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
What game are you playing?