I commented on the aliens being able to re-evolve new upgrades thread and a neato little idea came to me.
First off I know NS is a Sci-Fi game with heavy emphasis on FICTION because fiction is more fun but my idea comes out of science.
The Kharaa are bacteria-based lifeforms. bacteria is unique in the Animal kingdom because they do not have sex. They simply divide like your skin cells are constantly doing and then wah-la! New lifeform.
My idea is a kind of alien teleportation network using this idea. Hives can spawn skulks and at one time gorges were described as being small, moving hives. So as a hive two(Three?) ability I think the gorge should get the ability to make itself a waypoint and it will "spawn" skulks.
Allow me to elaborate, for technical and balance reasons I think there should one be one gorge to teleport to at a time. To teleport to a gorge would require a skulk (and only skulks to use this ablity) to either "use" a MC and select the option of "spawn near gorge." Now since marines have to build a phase gate which can take forever when the battle is heavy I think the skulks would either have to go back into the spawn que or have an x second delay before they actually teleport. My reasoning for this is that this needs to be slow enough so that a cloaked gorge can't sneak into an enemy base and spawn six skulks at once. Also, the "Hive-gorge" would be marked on the minimap so that it'd be very easy to identify where someone would teleport. If the hive-gorge dies the players in the spawn que would switch to the normal spawn que either automatically or be put back on top of the spawn que. There needs to be a delay. I'd say the normal spawn que would make this very competitive because by the time the commander beacons there's only two or three skulks in base. It won't destroy the base but it might be enough time to to take out an advanced armory or arms lab so that the "bigger" units can move in and deal the real damage. To prevent massive skulk rushes via a hive-gorge in a vent I'd suggest that there be ample room to all sides of the gorge (one skulk length maybe?) for a skulk to successfully be "divided" from the gorge.
I think the Kharaa need this ability because it would centralize their offensives greatly. With a smart hive gorge as a waypoint the alien team would be able to launch offensives on unmanned marine based (say a double resource spot on the map) with frightening speed. It would encourage team-play amongst the Kharaa in public games. I don't believe it is nessasary to balance this out with the marines since they move at frightening speed as is. I'm well aware the Aliens are the counter team meaning they counter the marines actions most of the time but this method is very slow whereas the entire marine team can phase over in less than five seconds. I would imagine this would be used for two main purposes: gorge defense which gorges need and this would help them a lot, and sneak offensives where a gorge stumbles upon a vernable base (say a turret farm where the TF was destroyed and the marines will be there via foot in 30 seconds. Now normally one skulk and a gorge would fall, but two skulks or so could spawn over to the gorge in order to defend the wave of marines about to come and give the alien team a chance of taking out the base resulting in the marines losing res and map space. This doesn't even include skulks that run over to the hot-spot. I do not see this ability meaning gurilla raids upon the marine main base unless the marines are falling asleep.
There's lots of potential I think for this idea. I'm proposing this as a general idea, maybe a static waypoint would be better? maybe a structure to teleport to would be better. Lemme hear your thoughts.
Full Version: Alien Teleportation
Unknown Worlds Forums > Natural Selection > Natural Selection Discussion > Ideas and Suggestions Forum > Ideas for future versions
hmmmmmmmmmmm dont know
technical / gameplay wise:
- spawn points. how you would realise it?
for the same reason that a beacon goes into the ms, this one is quite hard to resolve.
- its basicly a pg for aliens.
wouldn't it destroy the type of aliens != marines style of ns?
story / fluff wise:
how exactly would a skulk dissasemble into dust and spawn near the gorge?
also, i think this would increase the "hunt the gorge down!" situations, which is imo a bad idea.
- spawn points. how you would realise it?
for the same reason that a beacon goes into the ms, this one is quite hard to resolve.
- its basicly a pg for aliens.
wouldn't it destroy the type of aliens != marines style of ns?
story / fluff wise:
how exactly would a skulk dissasemble into dust and spawn near the gorge?
also, i think this would increase the "hunt the gorge down!" situations, which is imo a bad idea.
It would definitley be an interesting addition. The MCs are nice and all for getting you to the furthest away hivel, but I wish the aliens had some sort PG =p
-Negatives, NS team seems to want to make a final version, additions prolly wont be done.
-Negatives, NS team seems to want to make a final version, additions prolly wont be done.
RobB: I think the idea is that they spawn at the gorge not spawn at a hive then teleport to the gorge.
It seems like an interesting idea and it would be a highly mobile pg for sure
It'd be great in places like powersilo where you could gorge, bilebomb the marine crap and then let skulks pour through to clean up the area.
An interesting way to retake a hive spot (provided you have mc and spare res) is to drop a hive there anyway and then jump through the mcs constantly - more for pub games but this is incredibly fun. Sounds like your idea would add a similar strategy with sudden skulk rushes.
I'm 50:50 on this idea.
It seems like an interesting idea and it would be a highly mobile pg for sure
It'd be great in places like powersilo where you could gorge, bilebomb the marine crap and then let skulks pour through to clean up the area.An interesting way to retake a hive spot (provided you have mc and spare res) is to drop a hive there anyway and then jump through the mcs constantly - more for pub games but this is incredibly fun. Sounds like your idea would add a similar strategy with sudden skulk rushes.
I'm 50:50 on this idea.
| QUOTE (RobB @ Oct 23 2004, 11:55 AM) |
| technical / gameplay wise: - spawn points. how you would realise it? for the same reason that a beacon goes into the ms, this one is quite hard to resolve. - its basicly a pg for aliens. wouldn't it destroy the type of aliens != marines style of ns? story / fluff wise: how exactly would a skulk dissasemble into dust and spawn near the gorge? also, i think this would increase the "hunt the gorge down!" situations, which is imo a bad idea. |
- I don't know much about coding but since one player is spawning at a time maybe it'd be possible to add a temporary spawn point x units in front of the hive-gorge. Beacon is tricky because the entire team needs to spawn whereas this is just one player.
- I don't think it would. Normally the aliens respond to the marines and the marines still have the far superior teleportation technology since the aliens spawn much slower than a marine team. Aliens will still be responding to marine threats, but this would allow for more interesting responses.
- As far as fluff wise you could make some wonderful story up like "the organism makes a conscience choice to have the toxins from the movement chamber chemically synthesize its body into the most basic bacterial form and it travels via that bacteria carpet to the hive-gorge where it stimulates the gorges internal systems telling it to divide. For unknown reasons an identical copy of the gorge is not made but instead the more simple organism known as the skulk is born of the gorge. Recent speculation is that the Kharaa are not 100% bacterial lifeforms. That the Kharaa are using polypoide (self-fertilizing, mainly a plantae thing) to create new and more complex lifeforms. This might explain why the hive can not spawn anything besides skulks. If the hive self-fertilized it would most likely create something too large to defend itself and most defiantly nothing to defend itself with (teeth, claws, horns etc)
| QUOTE (Meto @ Oct 23 2004, 01:58 PM) |
| RobB: I think the idea is that they spawn at the gorge not spawn at a hive then teleport to the gorge. |
Yes and no. This idea would enable the skulk to enter a spawn queue (maybe the normal spawn queue that the rest of the aliens use) and the gorge spawns them x seconds later depending on who entered the queue first.
It would be possible to spawn at the hive, run to the MC, click, and then seven seconds later appear at the gorge.
I suppose that an option could be given to the players in the spawn queue to spawn at the gorge; however, if the entire alien team suicides that'd be an incredibly obvious sign of events to come.
The only part I can't really figure out is how a gorge gets this ability. The gorge needs all his abilities as is because they are freaking useful. At three hives the gorge needs web, at two he needs bile bomb. Maybe off of the adrenline upgrade there would be a gorge only upgrade "Momma gorge" that would require both adrenline (for physical endurance measures) and x (4-6?) resources to evolve the ability? It would be off the MC because this team ability requires an MC to work.
interesting idea 
but it for the "hive gorge" it would be boring to the death...
also i think this would become to vital to win
but maybe its just me
but it for the "hive gorge" it would be boring to the death...
also i think this would become to vital to win
but maybe its just me
Well...
some bacteria have some kind of sex to keep their existance
at least they are exchanging DNA through small plasmapipes.
Allthough i dont think it is not possible to have a moving spawnpoint in HL engine
as redemption and MC teleporter use spawnpoints.
some bacteria have some kind of sex to keep their existance
at least they are exchanging DNA through small plasmapipes.
Allthough i dont think it is not possible to have a moving spawnpoint in HL engine
as redemption and MC teleporter use spawnpoints.
hmm, reminds me of the blabbers skill the gorges used to have in old NS versions, except the skulks where AI and then xenocided after a few seconds
Sounds like a good idea...can you not use a gorge like an IP as a spawn portal?
Its different enough from a phase gate (marines have to build one, aliens jsut can spawn where others of their kind are) and it should make the game more interesting. Gorges are too defencless at the moment. Summoning skulks would help!
How about its an option in the gorges pop-up menu to "spawn skulks" and once you select it the next skulk to respawn spaws at the gorge. Or You could make it cost 1 res a shot and spawns the skulk in its own spawn queue, helping situation at one hive where the aliens are spawncamped and quicly lose. A gorge could help the team spawn faster and retake the hive.
Its different enough from a phase gate (marines have to build one, aliens jsut can spawn where others of their kind are) and it should make the game more interesting. Gorges are too defencless at the moment. Summoning skulks would help!
How about its an option in the gorges pop-up menu to "spawn skulks" and once you select it the next skulk to respawn spaws at the gorge. Or You could make it cost 1 res a shot and spawns the skulk in its own spawn queue, helping situation at one hive where the aliens are spawncamped and quicly lose. A gorge could help the team spawn faster and retake the hive.
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