Staff Feedback on Hugger Mechanics Test #1

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Feel free to leave your feedback here.

[MauroVega]

I liked it quite a lot,really put more focus on carriers (maybe too much) and really made marines think of actually getting B-18

[Rob606]

I liked the shift. Made xenos be more aggressive and more reliant on robustness. The danger of getting caught and the effectiveness of the huggers really made the battle feel a lot more dangerous, especially with how fast gestation was.

I didn't like the Crusher change. They're just bullet sponges, with the occasional mine clearing. Not a satisfying caste to play like that.

[Eenkogneeto]

Gotta say, Mostly positive to the changes even as is. Though I agree crusher was in a weird place I doubt it would take much adjustment to improve it in other ways without its stomp being a super meme.
One thing I have to say, increasing the timer for larva was needed but I feel that it would help to make being infected somewhat disabling in combat. As currently, marines do a lot of suicide rushing after getting infected since it prevents the threat of huggers.

[Toroic]

I very much liked the general trend of the changes, though with huggers being massively buffed but more limited I'm not surprised the win ratios didn't change much. I'm looking forward to seeing it return.

Crusher's new stomp cripples the caste for a number of reasons.

1) They relied heavily on stomp to function in a tank role. In a pvp gamemode simply being durable does not make a tank, they need to both be difficult to kill and problematic if ignored. With new stomp, crushers cannot initiate without being counter attacked by buckshot or a flamethrower. Marines run faster than moonwalk, and charging out is extremely dangerous.

2) The cooldown relative to effectiveness for new stomp is about a minute for a couple slashes worth of damage. Like rav charge but with 10x the cooldown, similar damage, higher cost, and no mobility.

3) Best practice for xenos is not to stand on top of marine sprites, it makes it difficult to click on them.


Other than that I'd say most of the changes were very positive.

[ZDashe]

1) I enjoyed the change where only drones/hivelord/queens could hold huggers, and carriers could only carry them on their backs. This shifted the skillset of the hunting castes from the cheesy rush and drop huggers to actual player skill and often times teamwork.

2) Regarding the increase to 500 plasma per egg, it also made the queen's role more queen-like, and force drones to actually build defences for the hive. It also made huggers "valuable" and mitigated horrendous egg fields which can be rather absurd at times. It doesn't prevent egg field tactics however, as long as there were other Xenos to constantly donate plasma to the queen, which actually makes it more of an investment that requires effort rather than a cheesy tactic.

3) Relating to the previous points, this also shifted the drone's zone of operations to be closer to the hive, and makes a defensive drone more powerful offensively, as it can use huggers to infect marines as a last resort by running up to them. This shifted the meta of drones being helpless most of the time, to one which is to be feared if it's operating in the hive.

4) Crusher's stomp was an interesting change, but the cooldown time was a bit too long for it to be effective or worthwhile for anything else other than a hit-and-run. I found myself having to ram people first, before strolling up to their bodies and hitting the nail into the coffin, then pulling out. Otherwise, normal slashing could probably get the job done well enough if they were lying down helpless enough for you to slash. Without the stun, crushers can easily be defeated 1v1 off weeds almost all the time (unless you pick your terrain well and use charging with dark-vision for stealth and speed), so its safety zone of operation was narrowed down significantly.

5) The hunting Xeno castes were also killing instead of infecting marines and survivors a lot more than before. From the perspective of a marine player, I feel that this change is actually better because it gives players incentive to push back and recover their dead marines to be defibbed, rather than live in constant fear of being hugger stunned by any Xeno player that may or may not be hiding around the next corner. This mindset change can be a strong motivating factor for marines to avoid turtling, and emboldens fellow marines to save a fallen comrade who is being dragged away. From a survivor standpoint however, it just sucks a lot, because you often don't even get captured into the hive to try to escape - aliens will more likely downright just kill you. From Xeno's perspective, the killing frenzy will hurt your growth in the long run. The only way to bolster your larva pool was to either play defensively near your eggs, or send a carrier out to the frontlines, the latter being the most popular choice.

6) Regarding the use of carriers, due to the slight change in hugger mechanics bypassing helmets, a single young carrier could mass infect 6 marines in one assault (I did this twice myself as a carrier in the same round, and it felt pretty OP) which could get a bit ridiculous, considering huggers can't be removed. This gave rise to a doctor in the FOB meta, which became a very valuable counter-strategy. However I feel that the carrier meta was still far superior especially on high pop because a swarm of carriers can still easily pick off a marine assault team one by one, and I'm glad carriers count as T3 now for balance sake.

Overall, I enjoyed the removal of combat huggers in general, and the test was a pretty fun change of pace and challenge when playing both Marine or Xeno.

[Gorglol]

I pretty much only play marine and what I noticed was that I had more time to type, RP and use the radio because I'm not under the same stress to be potentially jumped by a runner and hugger-cheesed. I felt much more immersed and involved in the round because I wasn't constantly worried about tripping a hugger with every step I took. Whenever I got jumped by a hunter I actually got a pretty good fight out of it, even if the odds still felt slightly in the hunters favor, I always felt that I had the ability to fight for my life, usually with me limping away in crit or badly hurt.

Carriers were changed to the better I feel too, when they totally blindsided me they usually managed to get me hugger'd, but when I knew where they were and I was ready for it, I could defend myself rather well with my gun turned on singlefire and sniping the huggers when they land.

[Biolock]

Ugh I'm so bummed I missed this test.

[McRipfist]

Ugh I'm so bummed I missed this test.

There will be another Soon(tm)

[TheMaskedMan2]

I can't believe that Soon(tm) is only [REDACTED] away!

Though I seriously can't wait for the next one.

Edit: When it comes to actual feedback, I don't really have much to say that hasn't been said already. I enjoyed the rarity and danger of facehuggers, they felt less like something you just throw out en masse. Carriers were a little bit silly but besides that it was good. The crusher stomp was, well, odd? It was certainly satisfying to smush marines but I think the nerf was a bit much. I'm a bit tired right now so I lack any real suggestions but overall I think the gameplay and enjoyment was improved, besides some minor kinks.

[Karmac]

I thought that Carriers had a bit too much health and were rushing up to my sentry guns a lot more often than they should have been, but the only other thing I had a problem with were the crusher changes, they felt completely unnecessary and basically ruined any kind of combat based gameplay it had originally.