Just a quick thought, what if there was a small larger-then-OC-sized "bubble" (rough sphere shape) that is a liquid-filled bacterium-covered ball that was passable by anyone and could be placed ANYWHERE and not block anything (including res tower/marine building construction) but marine bullets. If you need to visualize it, think of a resource tower's bulbous top, slightly transparent, with a animated interior liquid sloshing around. (liquid is part of the model, dont worry)

This would be placable by the gorge for somewhere around 7-15 res, would have about the health of the OC +50 to 150HP, take 6x damage from explosives/seige, and would be 75% transparent to start with as it is a sort of chambered bubble. (so you can see what's inside, though not clearly) After 5 minutes or so they shrivle up to a smaller version about 10 times as small with 10 times less max HP, but they will soon expand back to a normal size fully healed; this is the only way they can be healed. no amount of defence chambers or heal sprays or hives will heal them!

What this would be used for is a sort of sheilding for OCs, resource chambers, and other various alien chambers. Since their hitbox is bigger then a OC's the bubble takes all the hits, and since everything but marine bullets can pass through, the OC can fire back unimpeded. However, because they can be built on the exact location of OCs and other buildings and will [/u]not[/u] allow anything to be built on them because they're always passable, they cannot be stacked. No insane walls of Bubbles. And yes, marines CAN walk through these bubbles, but somewhat slowed.

Because seiges, hand grenades, and GL nades do 4 times to 8 times more damage then normal, they will litterally "Pop" when these weapons open up on a feild of them.

Examples of what they could do/be used for:
- 2 OCs and 1 Bubble for either, or 2 OCs a DC and a Bubble on the DC. Both will slow down marines in trying to remove these speed bumps. Because the bubbles will collapse every 5 or so minutes, a attack in the time that those bubbles are collapsed will destroy the bubbles (if the bubble has 600 HP, it will have 60 HP when it is collapsed; a single hand grenade and they're whiped out.)

Of course, the bubbles will be destroyed only if the shots can get to them, and since they should usually collapse INTO the building they're gaurding, conventional weapons (pisols/HMGs/shotguns) probably won't kill them. (because the building is now acting as the bubble's meat sheild)
- If bubbles could aid the speed of skulks/gorges floating within them, they could be assembled in chains allowing a StarCraft "Nydus Canal" sort of movement between NON-HIVE places.
- Bubbles could be placed on the ground to protect a alien as it gestates in a hostile enviroment.
- Bubbles could be scattered throughout a room, randomly slowing marines who touch them but don't want to alert the hive to their presance (if they attack the bubble a alert goes out to all the aliens, just like any alien building)
- Bubbles, if attacked with parasite or other weapons, could become parasite-inducing bubbles or cause effects similar to the weapon they were attack with, causing parasites to invade marines who brush by or similar effects.


A cheap, and for a time vulnerable, sheild dissallowing nothing but marine bullets from passing through. It slows marines, and could speed skulks and gorges. They're bigger then a OC and look like a resource chamber's bulbous top, slightly transparent with animated fluid sloshing around inside.

Kinda sounds like umbra, cept it costs res and the speed buffers/reductions.

It's not umbra:
- It does not create umbra clouds
- It is a placable building built by the gorge.
- It lasts one hell of a lot longer then umbra
- Because it is a building, it will have a hitbox, health, a model, and all the other things buildings have; imcluding the inability to move.

6x damage from GLs, and only 25-150 more HP than the OC? Sounds... pretty useless, honestly. Especially with the inability to heal it with a DC. And the 15 res cost is just over-the-top... *maybe* 2-3RP for as-presented, with how easily-destroyed they are.

sounds a lot like a "wall" to me...I seriously doubt anything like this will ever be implemented

if the OCs can shoot through i think this is definitly an interesting idea
the bubble would cover the OC as it fires at enemies
but i think the bubble should deflate after x amount of damage
after like a 1-5 minute recharge time, it'll inflate again to take damage

only ways of removal should be explosive killage, or knifing or seige (read below)

should be buildable at hive 2 i think...?
so that GLs might not be dominant, but if the comm has researched nades, it'd be great
no explosives? go knife it, at the risk of getting killed by the OCs

added bonus: maybe sieges should target this thing first? then after obsorbing a few shockwaves (no splash damage from the seige, the bubble obsorbs it) it will explode

i would suggest...8 res ish?

I think healspray should work on them , if grenades can blow them up in seconds an healsprayed bubble covered WoL wouldn't be viable at all.

Other possibility is to make them grow and divide - though it would be up to the gorge to place the bubble stem and fertilize it through frequent healsprays , any alien could +use its offspring to drag the bubbles around as they wish (unless they are right next to alien chambers , in which case they will stick to them) , though they would deflate when moved outside the range of the seed (or "bubble chamber")

Definitely atmosphere enhancing , just imagine the possibilities...

Heh, reminds me of those playgrounds where they had a pit filled with bubbles. hehe.
but it's actually quite a good idea. It'd be even better if the bubbles could be bounced around when aliens attack it with a ranged weapon (parasite, spit, bilebomb, spore projectile, acid rocket, and perhaps stomp)
so in an attack, you might have bubbles floating all over absorbing bullets! ahahah! nice.

Stakhanov that's one hell of a idea... put down a bubble tree, and let it produce bubbles. I love it! Windelkron is also onto something. Maybe Acid Rocket would finally have a good use? (it could throw bubbles the farthest) [maybe the bubbles could float around at hive 2 and be filled with spores at hive 3... ]

Bubbles could also be picked up in their deflated mode and moved around with whoever picked them up, and wouldn't reinflate until they were dropped (also dropped on death) so they would be mobile that way, too. However, the only reason why i have them fully heal only when they reinflate is because just imagine a bubble being attacked by a marine with a BULLET weapon trying to take out a OC/gorge. The gorge heals the bubble, and since the bubble is being healed by the gorge (possibly the OC as well) it also means that the marine has to do double his normal damage to take out the OC and gorge.

As well, imagine a gorge placing and picking up a bubble, and then dropping and stepping inside the bubble when ever he sees a marine, healing it with healspray AND damaging the marine at the same time. Besides, trying to patch a hole on a INFLATED (they're bubbles, remember?) surface does little good. you have to DEFLATE the thing, and then patch it up, because whatever patch you place on it in it's inflated form is subject to pressure. If bubbles are to be healed while inflated, it should be 1/2 to 1/5 the normal healing amount. (also because it heals fully when it reinflates from a deinflated form.)

This idea is rather funny and halarious...I am now imagine a skulk holding bactirum bubble in its mouth, throwing it at me, then trying to get me...and in larger battles....its will be like Im in a strange hippy world....with bubbles...and music from rolling stones and the beatles....but seriously

then the reens would need a counter for bubbles then right? to balance out the game... granted a Gl could hypotheticly clear out a room full of them in a battle, with FF on, that would just completely suck...

--"ack I need bubbles, run away Run away"

hand grenades, seiges, and possibly knives would also do the trick. (seiges dont target deflated bubbles.)

I like this idea, It'd help out with late game OC forts becoming totally worthless, and it wouldn't unbalancing anything just give another options, I don't see any issues with it being overpowerd or outragously bad, I think it'd be cool.

good idea Thumbs up

Yes this souns so intresting. 3 thumbs up!
And that crate thingy was too great

Wow, this is an excellent idea.

[suggestion]
How about you can somehow upgrade the bubbles (attacking them with a specific weapon, etc) and they become offensive bubbles. Any marine weapons will blow them up, killing anything marine inside them. Splash damage would make it too powerful.
I can just imagine an onos stomping a whole field of these things into rine start...
[/suggestion]

These could be an incredible asset to the aliens, and it would actually give hand nades a use! (omg teh armageddon is coming!)

One problem i see with these is how does the gorge place them vertically? If it is to surround a chamber, its centre should be the same as the centre of the chamber. Perhaps have it so that when they stick to a chamber, they are automatically centred on the chambers centre? And if an alien is dragging it along, its set to its model's centre. Otherwise they would just float around a foot or two off the ground? Or lightly roll around. Maybe have it so that anything passing through it will slightly alter its movement, prolonging its effects on the player, whether marine or alien.
Another problem is, although the weakness to explosives will make them all but useless near end-game, the beginning of the game will be incredibly skewed to the aliens (Bubble rush!). If we use the tree method, which i personally like, have a limit on the number of roots availiable, and make it cost 1 res per bubble it produces, taken off the builders total.
And the damage modifier for explosives needs to be reduced quite a bit, otherwise the comms will just get hand nades as their first move and the bubbles are pretty much pointless (yes, 2x def of an oc, but 1 nade and youre back to square 1).

Also, just an idea, as they are damaged, they slowly shrink to their 'dormant' state, just a visual idicator to the rines. Plus, if it is damaged, it will regenerate itself on schedule without shrinking, because the damage will have shrinked it slightly. Regen to take place 30s-1m after last damage recieved?


And Kudos to Maveric, great idea. Lemme know what you were on when you thought of this

Edi: SP

I rather like this idea... gives the aliens something that isn't static defense but yet is capable of slowing the marines down!

I can see the hive being surrounded by these things XD

What if OC's from second hive on were built with these things as default?

I think that there should be differnt types of bubbles that you could build. IE
Defense bubble: Takes normal damage from everything(doesnt block bullets) but when it pops is sprays a long-lasting umbra everywhere.
Offense: same as above except with spores maybe?

These could only be built with 2 hives
The res cost would also have to be much lower.

*necro*

I just watched the "hivecast" that mentions new atmospheric features like mist and floating alien larvae , and I think bacterial bubbles would fit the dynamic infestation system nicely. Growing bubbles that can be chained to form large translucent veins running through corridors , boosting the speed of aliens within and shielding them. Ideally a second tier of infestation as it can be used offensively (to attack marine controlled areas faster)

Think of the awesomeness. Bring them to NS 2.