250, cysts and infestation
alansmilealot
Join Date: 2012-11-15 Member: 171301Members
Join Date: 2012-11-15 Member: 171301Members
I never noticed until this build, but it seems like after a cyst dies the infestation fades extremely quick(i can see why due to the acidic nature, which doesn't really do much damage). The structures that require the infestations seem to die very quick in a matter of mili seconds. My Res node would take damage and still have like 800 hp and the time it would take for the infestation to spread the building would die before it was reached, even using a mist.
Would it not be fair to reduce the time the infestation fades or reduce the damage the structures take while off it.
Would it not be fair to reduce the time the infestation fades or reduce the damage the structures take while off it.
Comments
Hopefully they fix this up because its currently screwed as is.
If I am to save my harvester I need to have a gorge there quick, or a drifter to build the cyst(rarely makes it in time) or maybe myself as commander jumping out as gorge an keep it alive. It's not like every alien is wearing a healspray(welder) around. Some pubs people are not even up for going gorge until very very late game when they lost lerk/fade/onos and got enough res for gorge. Sometimes that not even happens.
wellwell, I am accepting it for now but something done with it would make me a happy camper. Just something
Quite a number of 'balance' changes to the cyst has rendered the mechanic all but useless to the aliens. Hell it's pretty much a detriment to the alien team at this point and serve no purpose whatsoever other than busy work for the commander and free points for the marines. Well I suppose its still not as bad as the power node. Now that's a troll mechanic!
Well you have to understand, there's a reason why cysts take more time to grow and spread infestation more slowly. It was because pre b250 the alien commander could too often mass expand with ease and drop harvesters everywhere while all the alien players were busy on the attack (mostly when fades came out). So there have been made several tweaks to prevent this sort of thing to some extent. Like slower build rates, slower cysting, and the encouragement of having a gorge on the field.
Pre b250, killing a cyst on a harvester, or cutting a cyst chain in general also didn't serve that much purpose because it was too easy to recyst, and took too long for anything to take damage.
Personally, I'd prefer to have slightly faster cysting and slightly less damage to structures off infestation while leaving the building part entirely up to gorges (no drifter builders). But overall, I think the current system is still better than pre b250.
This means that it is quicker to kill the harvester, but safer to kill the cysts (but takes a longer time for the marines, so safer in the long run, but might be more dangerous to have your axe out in the short run).
Also if 3 cysts fully mature at the harvester, it takes bloody ages to axe them down. (Axe is quicker then LMG with w0, slower than shotgun but shotgun only has 8 shells)
I'm surprised no one tries to come up with already implemented features to fix these problems and just cry for nerfs or new features.
A flamethrower can kill a cyst in 0.5 second, or three cysts in under 2 seconds. Once a cyst is set on fire, it slowly dies. Welders can take out cysts rather quickly as well.
Then again, I've always considered flamethrowers overpowered against cysts. It's easier to nerf the biggest culprit (flamethrowers) rather than changing an mostly balanced mechanics (infestation spread speed and infestation "starvation" damage).
Minimum damage off infestation (the exact damage is a percentage of the structures maximum HP) has been increased from 5 to 20.
Delay after destruction has been added to prevent redrop-spam in a contested area.
I think it's fine. It makes it actually viable to cut a chain now. And you can keep your dying RT alive slightly longer if you have a Drifter with Mucous Membrane around.
Aliens cant do the same, its not like bile bomb stays until a structure is destroyed, forcing marines to go back and weld it before then. and. Also mucus is only available if you have a crag hive. I've played some marine teams that really knew this and took full advantage of this. Some Pub games you never notice it but sometimes it rear its ugly head. I would be fine if they reduce the damage the structure takes.
@OP
Structures off infestation take 2% of their max health in damage per sec. That's a whopping 50 seconds to recyst 1 or 2 cysts - way more than enough time. Even without using drifters to build your cysts, thats like 10/20 seconds to recyst 1/2 cysts. If this is still too long, I suggest using drifters to build your cysts (4 times faster)
The whole problem is exacerbated (at least in pubs where there are few dedicated gorges) by the slow auto regen of alien buildings. So even if it didnt die this time, when that marine respawns and comes back in like 20 seconds and kills the cyst again it damn well will die, especially since killing a cyst pretty much does guaranteed damage in all but a few circumstances.
I'm not disagreeing that the changes to the cyst made them more viable in terms of game balance (even though in my opinion mass expand is still brain dead easy), but what other purpose does the mechanic serve other than a headache for the aliens? There used to be a time when cysts and infestation actually provided unique gameplay elements that added some diversity to the game. Now? It's a glorified power node.
I suppose I'm just displeased how unique gameplay elements are being homogenized for the sake of balance. And I'm all for having drifters be consumed when constructing buildings like the Zerg (making alien buildings more expensive to balance out their ability to rapidly expand throughout the map). If you're going to rip off another game, then may as well go copy everything that made what you ripped off unique and interesting.
mist doesn't do what you think it does. It does not build anything faster and it does not spread infestation faster. All it does is help structures reach maturity (more HP, bombard whips) and lifeforms evolve faster.
Damage to structures isn't only the effect of killing Cysts though. It also prevents certain structures and abilities from functioning properly (eg. Whips can't attack, Shades reveal themselves). The ridiculous ease of killing Cysts with a Flamethrower also stifles the potential of infestation acting as a mean to end the game, which would improve the enjoy of the game.
Alien structures take more than 2% of max health per second. If you walk a structure off infestation, it only takes about 30 seconds to die (over 3% per second). It takes about 50 seconds for a structure to starve to death, starting from the instant the supporting cyst is destroyed.
All I'm asking for is a very minor but tangible balance tweak, of reducing flamethrower multiplier against "flammable" targets (eg cysts, hydras).
Oh, i'm sorry for some reason i thought once cyst were fully matured the infestation reaches its max radius. its a habit...