3 problems with babblers
Samus1111111
Join Date: 2012-08-07 Member: 154930Members, Reinforced - Shadow
1. They really suck at following the gorge around. When I drop babblers, I dropped them to help me in combat by providing a distraction/armor and some damage. However, when I bellyslide from Datacore to Reactor, turn around, and don't see a single babbler, what's the point? Do I have to toss the bait ball every 5 seconds? Just doesn't seem right...
Also, don't even think of going through a gorge tunnel if you want your babblers. I'm thinking that they need to have better following AI and if the player gets too far away from them, the bait ball will cause them to teleport to the gorge? That way, when a gorge uses a gorge tunnel and pops out the other end, he can have his babblers to help him.
2. Why does my pres investment exploded after ~2mins? That's like telling the marines that their SG is only going to last 2 mins before disappearing. I spent pres on the babblers and thus there shouldn't be a hidden counter (one of NS2's pillars) where they will disappear after x period of time. They should stay until they are killed.
3. Once a gorge has put the babblers on themselves (not sure about others, not able to test it yet), they are not able to remove them until the babblers decide to pop off. Again, the babblers have some hidden timer where they decide to pop off of the gorge. They should stay on the gorge until a bait ball is thrown and then they should return to their normal duties of chasing the thing and biting the ankles of anything near it.
Also, don't even think of going through a gorge tunnel if you want your babblers. I'm thinking that they need to have better following AI and if the player gets too far away from them, the bait ball will cause them to teleport to the gorge? That way, when a gorge uses a gorge tunnel and pops out the other end, he can have his babblers to help him.
2. Why does my pres investment exploded after ~2mins? That's like telling the marines that their SG is only going to last 2 mins before disappearing. I spent pres on the babblers and thus there shouldn't be a hidden counter (one of NS2's pillars) where they will disappear after x period of time. They should stay until they are killed.
3. Once a gorge has put the babblers on themselves (not sure about others, not able to test it yet), they are not able to remove them until the babblers decide to pop off. Again, the babblers have some hidden timer where they decide to pop off of the gorge. They should stay on the gorge until a bait ball is thrown and then they should return to their normal duties of chasing the thing and biting the ankles of anything near it.
Comments
It also makes it feel a bit too much like you need micromanage them too much--getting babblers attached to a fade mid-fight is way more hassle than it ought to be.
I would suggest knocking on the head all this magic number business--don't sell out on the ideas that make this game great now: things should live until they die and do what they're told until they're told to stop.
I would also suggest (and you may be able to do this already, and i was just failing to do it), that you can attach babbler eggs to people and when they hatch they auto-armour whatever it is they hatched on.
amongst other things; everyone can go gorge and drop 3 hydra + 9 babblers and then change lifeform. that would lead to a lot of map clutter.
the AI needs some tuning, but otherwise it's pretty decent for body armour etc.
2) agreed, i actually suggested increase the time to 3 min..I don't like they die after 2 min either.
3) There is a cling timer, not sure what the final number was. Originally it was 10, last time i heard though 20 was used.
This issue is known and being worked on, thanks for the report. I'm snipping it for "reasons" :P -Kouji San
If the Babbler's needed their parent Gorge to be alive (and a still a Gorge); thus had a timed life once Gorgie-pops was gone that would make sense to me. As a player i wouldn't be wondering where they'd gone, and why, it would be "readily apparent" why they disappeared--because their parent was gone.
Straight from Babbler.lua. That's MAMA Gorge to YOU!
As i typed "Gorgie-pops" i was wondering about the gender of Gorges. I presumed they were female (what with laying eggs), but i figured Gorgie-pops sounded better than Gorgie-mama.
Also, are we shure the Khaara share the same binary-gender, sexual reproduction business thing we have?
Also, is anyone else thinking of a new meaning for term GILF?
I was messing with them a bit yesterday, they are a cool concept but they are way too hard to manage. Its like they all have seriously debilitating ADHD.
That is known as well. We discovered this literally as the new build was uploading to the public...:(
It happens with all life forms though not sure about onos.
That's a good bug to report then. You shouldn't be able to build a babbler egg in a place that isn't part of the nav mesh.
You can't make them cling to you if they are outside of the nav mesh because they can't move.
I spawned them in the vent outside sub access in atrium right next to the middle where the vent access sub. I threw a bait ball out the entrance at Hugh (:P), but the babblers just chilled out where they spawned. I attempted to attach them to myself with the same result.
Good to know it was already known. Too bad it was too late when you discovered it
I went straight into a 5 marine pack and died after 2 shotgun blasts + dozens of LMG bullets, but didn't kill any of them because of that bug. I swiped the shotgunner like 6 or 7 times but only the last 2 attacks did some damage. If I could get him I'm pretty sure I'd have cleaned up the room
Let's focus on fixing the bugs with their current implementation before asking for buffs that we do not even know whether they need.