So here's the story. I love drawing, but suck at coloring it digitally, so I did my first digital painting. Based it off some NS alien designs, and decided to go all out and make a full alien pitch! Picture's not nearly finished, but the alien's looking presentable and I'm excited to post this, so here we go!



I'll do a summary quickly, then break it down into more detail.

Alien name: Bulk
(thought about a fancy name like Behemoth or Colossus, but those don't fit the other alien names)

Moveset:
1- Headbutt. Think onos swipes but a little stronger and a lot slower.
2- Turtle. Crouches into a protected position. Stationary.
3- Shoulder ram. Knocks marines around, sends them flying. Can use multiple marines to create a domino effect.
4- Stomp. Rears up on two legs and crashes down. Moves forward slightly and instantly kills marines above it when raising, or below it when falling. Knocks down nearby marines.

Description:
Bulks evolved to defensively counter some of the flaws in other aliens. They developed thick bullet-stopping plates, and instead of external nerve bundles that can be seen on several aliens like skulks and fades, the Bulk has its nerve bundles underneath these plates.
The name of the game with this guy is "THOU SHALT NOT PASS." Bulk is based off the idea of a defensive Onos. The thing is slow as hell, but can stall and set up some killer ambushes.
From the front, Bulks are nearly impervious to bullet/shell fire. Explosives, flame, and knives will do damage. Surrounding or catching them from the rear is the best way to take these things down. They cannot strafe, but must turn using the left/right keys. (mouselook has a somewhat limited range as well) Because of these attributes, the style of play with a Bulk will be around making routes impassable or very undesirable to marines. The Bulk will be used in passages likely designed for it, where it takes up almost the whole passage. Working in conjuction with teams of skulks, the Bulk can cut off routes of escape or can occupy marines long enough for an ambush.

Moveset explanations:
Headbutt is simple.

Turtle - Bulk lines up its plates in a sort of "crouch" and becomes immune to all bullet/shell fire from the front. Fire and explosive damage is reduced. Knives, however, can be pried through the plates to get at sensitive parts, so knife damage is INCREASED. It takes two to three seconds to enter or exit this state. During entrance and exit animations, the damage modifiers are in place. In this way a bulk can protect itself from fire immediately but if swarmed by knives it cannot immediately fight back. To counter this, if skulks can get to the marines via a vent while they have their knives out...
In this state, the Bulk actually widens its stance a small amount, so where units may have been able to get around it before, are now unable to pass by.

Shoulder ram - marines hit by this take relatively little damage, but are hurt if they hit anything. They are sent back in a ragdoll sort of animation, and knock down any other marines they come into contact with while flying. This can be used to knock down jetpackers as well, since the extra weight of a second marine will be too much for the jetpack.

Stomp - Can be used to crush jetpackers trying to fly over the Bulk, or get anyone foolish enough to get close. A relatively long attack animation. While raised up, the Bulk exposes its lesser-armored underbelly and insides of its legs, taking full damage from any weapon of any kind. Nearby marines are knocked down in a similar fashion to the onos stomp, but in a radial pattern instead of a direct line.

Thoughts?

onos v2?

i just think that the onos, need a serious buff. so that maybe HMG do only 8 damage, and that the only way to damage him notable are granades, heck! make him immune to everything eccept granades!

I would just like to say, i absolutely love the turtle idea.

Ive always seen Onos as more of a support unit than offense, and turtle absolutely fits that role amazingly. Imagine an organised attack on a marine base, lead by an onos/bulk charging in stomping until adrenaline is low, and then turtling. The marines would have to strategically choose to shoot it or not and so on.

I think a name like retract is more suitable, I think charge could be replaced with this.

I would like to see a bit of a merge of the onos and this concept.

It would probably be a bit slower than the Onos.
More damage and slower attack rate.
Less HP, more armor (essentially making it live longer)

attack order

1- Maul
2- Devour
3- Stomp
4- Retract


I also like the idea of stomp. However i dont think things above should be insta killed. I love the idea of marines actually falling down, rather than just a stun.



Last thing - i dont see there being weak/strong points in NS2, mainly because aliens are so big and can turn so fast. As a result, i dont think it is viable to say that it has incrased armor frmo the front. However, with turtle, you could make the creature completely immobile or turn slowly, so that you could have weak/strong points.

hmmm, i love the idea of this turtle like creature. Retract would be cool, but aliens could hack easily, using retract for very short time, so it isnt worth shooting at it, and it could move too. So it should be like the old charge, if you use it, it is going to be active til your adren runs out.

I really like this idea. The insta kill is fine since it moves so slow and turns slowly. It looks really balanced over all.

Now for the part that no one likes...

From a developers standpoint, knocking people over or onto the ground and such just wont work in source. They do it in cut scenes but thats not using the player at that point, thats a camera moving on a path. You can cause the player to fly back, even take damage from slamming into walls and such but falling down is not possible.
What could be done is your sent flying back and are stunned for a moment, unable to move or your screen could even go blurry or black. Think Flash/Band efect from Counter Strike without the ringing and bright flash. The player can still move and act but without any coherency.

Anyways, keep at the concept art, it looks really nice right now. I would even say leave it as is and make some more.

Thanks for the support, guys. It's cool to see that others are interested in these ideas :D

@Chiss: Retract is indeed a much better name. Nice call. As for marines falling down, I figured that a ragdoll effect could be applied while they were in the air or falling, and after they land, each client determines whether they are roughly "face up" or "face down." An appropriate getting up animation plays as a result of that call, and the game goes on.

@NSSlayer: The downside to retract is a lengthy "animation" of the creature when getting into position and standing up. The moment the move is activated, the player is forced at minimum to endure both animations, during which the marines are able to converge with knives. This not only makes it that the marines have to decide whether to use knives or wait for the ambush, but that the Bulk itself must decide whether Retract is a good option.

Now as someone has mentioned different moves/attacks, here's my reasoning behind the ones that exist and which order they're in.

-Headbutt is pretty obvious. Needs a basic attack.
-Retract should be the other single hive ability because this is simply the function of a Bulk - to obstruct, deter, and ambush. This is also going to be most useful in early game where the marines have less options to get around the Bulk (other than knives), and the skulk ambush would work best in early game when the marines don't have many upgrades.
-Shoulder Ram is a second hive ability because by this point the marines will be getting upgrades and will have more ways to get past Retract. They will also be tougher to ambush with things like grenades, shotguns, armor, etc. Knocking down marines adds another vital role for the Bulk to create opportunities for the ambushers (or itself) to move in and do damage. It also adds a layer of self-defense where it can catch would-be knifing packs and knock them down.
-Stomp, being deadly and being the least necessary for the basic functioning of the unit, should come last. Maybe add some structure-demolishing properties to give extra incentive to use that 4th-hive ability.

I just realized that I hadn't mentioned a NS1-based res cost or anything... I'd imagine 50 res, like a fade. Otherwise make it a cheaper cost but only allow one Bulk per team. (takes a lot of bacteria to support life that meaty! Can't have starving piggies, now...)

edit:
Oh, a post while I was posting! cool :D

Thanks, matrim. Nice idea for what the falling marine sees - that was totally something I forgot! Maybe every once in a while, cause a picture of a Gorge in skimpy lingerie to flash briefly in front of their eyes. "whoa, I must have hit my head HARD!"
As for the art, I want to finish the rest of the picture for my own artistic development, but I suppose we could use some sketches of it... using Retract, for example?

I'm glad you understood that ramble. Like I said, source doesn't really have a way to show the player that they fell down so unless you really really wanted to work the code over I would just scrap that idea, as good as it is (which it is and I wish it could be done because it makes sense). Also, the stomp could be very use full on a walk way, knock them off, maybe to their death. Anyways, for art, I would really like to see a few that are anatomy ones if you know what I'm talking about, not cut away so much as just profile, little lines that point out what things are.

Yar I like the drawing XD