Xeno Structures Test - Discussion

[Anderut22]

We recently had a Test Round with some new Xeno Structures. I analyzed them for a bit; for who didn't play in that round, here are the structures:


- Spawn Pool; respawns any dead xenos as bloody larvae without consuming burrowed. It appears that the Spawn Pool is prioritized over Burrowed Larva consumption when considering to respawn a xeno. Created by a Hivelord, only 1 can exist per hive.

- Evolution Pod; created by drone/hivelord/carrier(?), is a consumable which gives any non-larva xeno player full evo points. There's no need for an ovi'd Queen, or a Queen to exist altogether, but I might be wrong here. Max of 5 per hive.

- Egg Morpher; created by drone/hivelord/carrier(?), transforms dead xenos and bursted human corpses into face huggers. Acts as a turret, shooting face huggers at humans entering visual range. Max of 2 per hive.


In my opinion this change finally lets Xenos win the Attrition War once more. Once the Spawn Pool is created, the Hive population can ONLY INCREASE through captures, but, with the exception of de-logging xenos, it CANNOT DECREASE. No longer will hives be crippled by marine unga-rushes or robust survivors; even if you do lose some xenos they'll quickly respawn. The only true downtime they get is 1 minute to respawn, and 2-3 minutes to evo to Young T1.

In combination with the Evo Pod this makes it so that 1-2 drones can create Evo Pods and keep on respawning, letting fellow sisters access T3 way earlier, making the survs' day a living hell. Not only that, but dying T3's on the frontlines can wait 100 ticks as Larva, gobble up 2 Evo Pods and get back on the frontline as a Young T3. Good marine plays and pushes would be easily invalidated by Spawn Pool + Evo Pod plays. This is the *biggest issue* with the structures in my opinion; to fix it, maybe the Evo Pod number could be toned down to 2-3 pods...

...or perhaps there could be a tweak to the Spawn Pool. Either the Spawn Pool respawn could be bumped up a bit, or the Queen could choose to lose her ovipositor ability and create a Spawn Pool while "ovi'd" up. This would make the Hive Population practically stationary, and xenos would have to rely on EggSac Carriers and Egg Morphers to get facehuggers and thus captures. The Spawn Pool itself would become a Queen Strain, trading the Ovipositor for the Spawn Pool.

[MasterShakeEZ]

Can someone clarify exactly how the spawning pool works for me? Does it literally just pop out a larva every time a xeno dies? I was under the impression you had to bring xeno corpses to it to create a larva.

[Anderut22]

From what I noticed the Spawn Pool respawns dead xenos as Bloody Larvae, at no cost. It does not consume Burrowed, nor does it require human/xeno corpses. The Egg Morpher requires human/xeno corpses however; it's best used as a turret, put it in tight corridors where marines might come from and feed it corpses when marines come.

[MasterShakeEZ]

this is just hive memery part 2 electric boogaloo then. automatically gonna hate it. but we will see how it goes

[NethIafins]

this is just hive memery part 2 electric boogaloo then. automatically gonna hate it. but we will see how it goes

hive memory let you evolve into your old dead form and consumed burrowed larva

This thing respawns you as a larva if you die as xeno without burrowed larva consumption

Pretty much different things. One is to restore rank but cut population, another is to let aliens respawn as t1 but to get new xenos you have to actually capture.

[MasterShakeEZ]

hive memory let you evolve into your old dead form and consumed burrowed larva

This thing respawns you as a larva if you die as xeno without burrowed larva consumption

Pretty much different things. One is to restore rank but cut population, another is to let aliens respawn as t1 but to get new xenos you have to actually capture.

i didnt mean that they were the same thing, i meant the have the same outcome. Xenos become more of a horde, and xenos take nerfs making them die easier. Then I dont want to play xeno anymore.

[NethIafins]

i didnt mean that they were the same thing, i meant the have the same outcome. Xenos become more of a horde, and xenos take nerfs making them die easier. Then I dont want to play xeno anymore.

I don't see any nerf planned besides one to burrowed larva, IF this goes thru

[TreeCop]

Can you use all of the dead colonists to power the egg morpher or does it require actual player corpses?

[soundwavesghost]

Can you use all of the dead colonists to power the egg morpher or does it require actual player corpses?

Good question cause on maps like the new testing one....there was ALOT of extra corpses beside the one we popped out of at the round start.

[Pigeon]

I can see it going various ways.

If they nerf it an drones that just spawn evo chambers do not give larva... is this starcraft 1 or something?... then you will never see anyone making evo chambers since who wants to perma die or lose larva to just let snow flake WE-420-E5 get his autism ravager and then die as a young ravager over and over, or any tier 3 it doesnt matter wasting larva is a sin.

As is, Oh My God. This is broken OP as killing aliens basically does nothing they are truly endless. Not a wave and wave of tier 1s that need to wait for that sweet evo, no just endless waves of tier1-3s that just never stop since you will have drone players constantly refresh those evo chambers.

TBH I would remove the evo chambers as they will be pushing drone players to suicide for them or cause panic for xenos if drone players dont know to make them. The spawning pool without evo chambers should be fine as it will take time to see the dead regain there powers, it just means you need to actually keep the agression or be overran by xenos over time.

What if there is an hidden 'colonial burrowed population'? So you have maybe 100-200 burrowed for that and once you lose them the spawning pool stops working to EVENTUALLY make it so the aliens can be grinded down.

If nothing this all will need more testing to see how it works out.