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Thread: Plague System & Resin Mutations

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    Plague System & Resin Mutations

    Plague System & Resin Mutations
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    TL DR: Let's have something new, skip preface if you want and go to Plague System

    To preface, I have been observing, thinking and analyzing Xeno and their gameplay and what is or seems to be lacking in my view. Frontline combat-wise, it's quite solid since through MOBA we get a more solid Ravager and Praetorian Frontliner, although I dislike the changes made to Crusher and Lurkers. We have some decent backline and structural support via Pylons although I think it is still memeable. Frontline-wise, it is actually quite solid as long as you don't mess up.

    However, I tend to look at xenos and marines as a whole and the cases of marine and xeno buff/nerf leading to MOBA. Whenever Devs try to introduce a new feature to the marines or xenos, usually marines, they just buff the opposing team to match up the balance. Sometimes I find some of the buff and nerfs 'reactionary' and counter productive as opposed to actually adding value or benefit to the xenos as the Antagonist and justifies an amalgamation of arguments about devs:
    1. Ruining RP or Gameplay fun
    2. Not making Xenos a terrifying Marine Antagonist
    3. Marines getting all the cool stuff

    I want to say that I would give the devs a benefit of a doubt since all you hear on the forums and discord from Xeno mains are "REEEE NERF MARINES WHY ARE THEY SO BROKEN!!! BUFF XENOS!!!" They often drown their arguments with these and you will hear very little actual suggestion about new features or something cool about the xenos. (I dont see what's going on in Staff chat and forums so I cant really make a good judgement about what's going on there) And these are same people who complain about how you have to insert macro and spam ASWD to win games as xenos.

    Rather than going on and on about that and open a can of worms, I rather move forward add in my idea for Xenos instead.

    So now we have really good frontlining xenos and we normally abuse marines who just love to Friendly Fire each other till we win. Xenos as a hive have to avoid getting ganked considering how extremely mobile both sides are, and, in order to be in a situation where it is difficult to surround 1 xeno with 4 shotgun marines, Xenos have to hide behind and control Chokepoints. Chokepoint fights occur because xenos get to control how marines can move around, as opposed to a wide open field where you can get ganked and shotgunned to the face. Most buffs and nerfs center around frontline battles and Xeno backline is now non-existent now that permanest is a thing.

    So I am thinking of adding variety into how xenos play and how they want to win the game that adds challenge to the Marines, and not stupidly OP. In a sense, it allows the xenos to break meta a bit here and there. Here are some of my floating ideas:


    Plague System
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    This adds some backline debuff/harassment value to the xenos. Basicly the xenos need to fulfill certain conditions in order to unlock some of the weapons here here:

    Poison Rain: Applies 15-20 Toxin Damage per cast on Targeted Area. This is a unique way to slow momentum since you build up Toxin damage and it will force marines to retreat and eat a Dylo or two.
    Fatigue Rain: Slows the effect of drugs for set period of time globally.
    Critter Swarm: Temporarily Disables Sentries, Electronics, Stasis Bags and the like for a set period at a targeted area
    Sticky Rain: Decreases drag speed when dragging bodies, and greatly decreases drag speed when dragging crates and other items at a targeted area.
    AA Spit: Increases targetted Dropship cooldown by 45 seconds after transit.
    Orbital Spit: Increases OB Cooldown by 3 minutes from the time it fires
    Egg Launcher: Insert egg into the building, which mutates to spiderlings. It launches into an area that spawns 3 spiderlings that attacks nearby cades and marines. Damage is minimal, meant to annoy more than to cause any real damage. But if left unchecked for a really long time, they will be a problem.
    Psionic Disturbance: Temporarily Disables the Telecommunications Tower for 10-20 seconds

    Originally I wanted some of these to be Queen's ability or some new xeno type with these ability. But I think this idea works better: New Structures, each structure have one or more of these abilities.


    Modifiable Resin Mutations
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    Think OT, but xenos. No posted recipe, xenos gotta find this out for themselves. I only thought of the effects and benefits so I will list them:

    Buff, they can work out certain mutations that buffs the xenos or some of their structures in odd way:
    Poison Blades: Add 3 Toxin Damage to slash(Not applicable to Warriors, Runners and Lurkers)
    Venomous Blades: Add 10 Toxin Damage to slash(Only for Drones, Sentinels and Defenders)
    Skin Mutation: When received a set amount of damage, fires a slightly weaker version of the HEFA Acid from the boiler(Only for Defenders)
    Improved Glands: Allows for 1 or 2 hit neuro stun(Only for Spitter, makes the spit yellow)
    Nerve Pheromone: Slows nearby marines (Only for Defenders and Burrower)
    Infected Bone Chips: When the marines remove the bone chips, it will apply bleeding. (Only for Runners and Hedgehog Ravagers)
    Mutated Weed Sac: Either A. It turns the weeds into poisonous weeds slowly, dealing the same damage as uranium on the floor. OR It turns into an Acid HEFA trap. (Only for Carriers and Burrowers)
    Carbon Emitter: Mutates a wall into a special structure that does 10 Oxy Damage per 5 seconds to nearby marines. Reinforced walls does 20 Oxy Damage per 3 seconds. Damage not stackable.
    Fire Spiderlings: When applied on flame types other than Green, creates spiderlings that lights marines on fire when it attacks them. AI Controlled.
    Resin Bomb: When you have the right chemicals, you can apply on any debris to set off a resin bomb that spreads weeds massively. No sac, so it will disappear quickly.
    Armour Corrosion: Decreases the armour of Vehicles when slashed (Not applicable to Warriors and Lurkers)
    Pylon Mutation: When applied, the Pylon unleashes a large acid/neuro gas when destroyed. The Pylon loses the Hive Ceiling when this is applied, so this is meant as a last measure application.


    Check and Balance
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    I would like to state this is not really meant as a buff, rather it is meant as giving variety and means for xenos to win the game. Meaning, if one day I dont wanna go the usual meta of "Ok hive, build Tfort, foritfy, defend, meme, etc" I get to try out different options. And these options come at a cost, but it does have its benefits and will depend on the hive composition. Meaning, if I want to direct the hive into a certain meta or strategy, I have other means to do it rather than Deovi or Stay Ovi Queen, Hive build this only. It doesnt mean it will remove completely the need to build fortifications, we still gotta do it. But we get variations to how we win.

    So on paper, this looks stupidly OP so it obviously needs some check and balance in place to make sure it isnt heavily abused. And I find the best way to balance this is by cost basis:

    Time - We have 15-20 minutes to get ready for marine drop, or 28 minutes top. Making a fully autistic fort takes a lot of time and plasma, so adding some of these deviations require sacrifice on the part of the hive.

    Class Balance - There is another alternative of getting more Hivelords and Drones to build faster, but that is also cost. By going Drone caste, you lose more Frontliners.

    Plasma - We can approach this by two ways. One, the plasma cost to actually generate the special buildings or Two the plasma cost to operate the buildings. If we select 2, then only Drones can operate them because Drones have High plasma capacity and have more free time than the Hivelords. The indirect cost to this is the reweeding cost, you are gonna see some missing drones.

    Mutation Cost - For Mutations, the cost required to generate the chemicals are either by Plasma or by materials available to eat. So you eat certain type of materials to bank in special mutation chemicals in your body. If we go by Plasma, the effect has to be temporary at a fixed cost. If we go by materials, it has to be permanent with a fixed cost.

    Plague System Cap - My idea is not to have all the buildings at once, which if you follow at the points above, you will only get all of them if you hit the 3 hour mark or 1 hour if Marines arent winning. I am not sure if you want this to happen but, assuming you dont, then we can introduce a Cap system and assign the buildings by value cap cost. Kinda like RTS games with unit Cap cost. What's better is that the maximum cap scales depending on the pop as well.

    Xeno type - Since we have an obvious problem where some classes can be abused to its maximum to the point you can wipe the marines depending on the player *cough* SHP, we need this form of capacity: Do not let the mutation buffs apply to Warriors and Lurkers.


    Value Added
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    -Adding relevance to other areas of marines. some of the shipside roles get some new things to bother about that isnt too annoying or demand too much attention.(Except maybe the Spiderlings)
    -Dylo and Peri are gonna be an important drug once again.
    -Xenos get a variety of means to play their game
    -Rewarding play for xenos who dont like to spam ASWD and just wanna build or play it slower
    -Meta wont be so linear and it won't shift drastically
    -We dont really remove anything from normal meta so xenos can play on if they want.
    -Xenos have the ability and reach to tackle the marines differently, instead of hoping your frontline wins and you got robust frontlines, you can also use backline attacks. These attacks arent as crippling as sending a xeno shipside but effective enough.
    -Destroying special buildings or mutated xenos much more rewarding for marines if the hive relies too much on them.
    -Opens the door for more marine and xeno features to be introduced. Instead of responding every new marine feature with nerf/buff, we respond by features. So both sides get new toys to play with.
    -Not just Unga Dunga into hives now, now we gotta watch out for the special structures.
    -Justifies Marines keeping some of their toys with 0 nerf or minimal nerf
    Last edited by Casada_Radio; 12-14-2020 at 04:32 AM.

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