Modular Aliens

Tremulous Evil Genius Think Tank
1

So, why don’t the aliens get more variety? Humans get a lot.

Since alien classes are hard-coded into the game, why don’t we go another direction?

Make original classes the frames for upgrades!

Dretch- small frame
Basi- hunter frame
Mara- medium
Goon- big
Rant- giant
Granger- support

And the aliens should get weapons, just like humans! With some frames having boosts to some pieces or sets, like full dragoon set!

Upgrades will be evolved separately from the frame, to compensate for not needing armory.

List of bio-morphs(upgrades) coming soon!

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I would definitely like to see brainstorming on this idea. Being able to customize alien classes is something that us GrangerHub developers have discussed a bit privately. We do plan on including the option of aliens to obtain deployables (for possible deployables, be sure to brainstorm in this topic: Brainstorm ideas for types of deployables ), but it would also be cool if you could choose alternative upgrades/features for various classes. Perhaps some some might be an option for all classes, some might be an option for only a few or only one, some options might be exclusive to each other (where picking a specific option might not allow you to include one or more other specific options). I think this would bring a lot more variety to the game.

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Hello, @dGr8LookinSparky!

In my vision, there should be five or so upgrade pools, and different frames take from different pools. I guess I will try to formulate it all later.

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4

So, the first, or basic pool:
Reflective bite;
Wallwalking;
This pool is for basics, available to the basic, support and hunter frames.

Support pool:
Gas with booster-like effects:
Invisibility;
Gas;
Builder;
Healing;
Adv. Invis;
Adv. healing.
Available to support and hunters.

Third pool:
Wall jump;
Wings;
Chomp(damage depends on the frame);
Zap;
Spike shots, rapid fire;
Grab;
Hunter, goon, Mara frames.

Forth pool;
Pounce;
Heavy barbs;
Goons, Mara.

Heavy pool;
Charge;
AoE stun.
Rant and goon.

Also, why don’t we make the sound packs a choice?
Dretch frame can take Dretch and Granger packs,
Basi can take all(hunter frame, after all),
Mara and goons and rants can take only their original sounds.

Now for the frames:

Dretch- has same hp, speed and damage, can take 2 upgrades;

Support- hp of a Granger, speed stays the same, damage is halfed, or reduced even more, can take two upgrades;

Hunter- silent walk, speed and ho as the basi, can take 3 upgrades;

Maras and goons retain their hp, can take up to 3 upgrades.

Rant has same speed and hp, 2 upgrades.

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5

This is exactly what I was hoping for. However, we need them for both humans and aliens in a sense: upgrades.

A great feature which I myself wanted to do at times for 1.3 if I could, was add modules or upgrades or suggest them to both aliens, humans, and their buildables. I find that having upgrades for either or can be a great investment not only is it something more to buy but it’ll help you fight the enemy team. Also instead of having your base luci’ed in 10 seconds there could be counters and instead of your base being ranted in 10 seconds, the same exact thing. Not only will it create variety for games and more fun ways to kill the enemy team but it can also bring strategy and much more. Having upgrades I find is a very cool and interesting idea the ability to power your tools to their greater extent is something I enjoy doing. :slight_smile:

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Hello, @Helper_Bot, I think upgrading buildables is a really great idea!

I think this will add a lot of versatility(and that’s what you said in your post.

As of human and alien upgrades, do you mean like stat modifiers, and not exactly weapons? Like amor, cybernetic legs, etc?

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I include weapons, as having upgrades for the humans weapons and alien weapons is a pretty neat idea.

What I mean when having upgrades is upgrading the things that we already have as at least as start for example: Upgrading the rifle to be a slight bit accurate, do more damage or have special additions like say a mag extension or semi-scope, etc.

Light armor would come in two sets both: Legs and Chest (arms, shoulders, etc) in which via a GUI or a UI interface can we have changes made to certain parts of the armor, like the legs for example to run faster or boots to take less fall damage.

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8

Hey, those are really nice ideas, but what about aliens?

Maybe multiple carapace versions?

Different claws? Ones that ignore armor, but deal less damage?

The possibilities are endless!

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9

Since aliens are well, aliens they could have a good amount of physical upgrades and bodily upgrades.

E.X:

  • Attack damage upgrades
  • Amount of projectiles
  • Bullet resistant to certain types of bullets
  • Defensive armor
  • Mini-Boost
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Blinding poison;

Reflecting shields;

Sprint option?;

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11

Is this where alien ideas are posted ?

If it is, here are my ideas :
Aliens should be able to kick away nades because they are very powerful if near.
Aliens need some sort of armory like humans and buy accessories.
Aliens need night vision because there are dark maps ( Humans will have night vision when wearing helmet ).

These are all the ideas I have though of.:grinning:

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12

Hello, @TrashGnash, can you please expand your ideas of an alien aromury, please?:slight_smile:

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13

The alien armory should be able to give aliens different accessories like humans. They will be able to buy stuff with evos ( in 1.3 because max evos is 49 ) and they will buy upgrades or something, bigger teeth, more Armour and loads of things that can apply to aliens that aren’t to op.

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14

Humans and Aliens need resource collectors to make alien credits to buy stuff from the armory. An alien resource collector would be 8 bp and the human collector will be 8 bp too.

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15

Hm, with this System it will be nice to have Ecos like creds- max is 9000, this way upgrades are earthier to balance.

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Hi @TrashGnash , it is good to see you on the forums :slight_smile: . This topic is mainly about customizing aliens with upgrades/features/attributes the player can pick in-game.

For kickable nades there is an exiting topic here (don’t hesitate to post in any old open thread that you have something to add to, “necroing” old threads is encouraged):

Discussions about nightvision (and flashlights) are taking place here:

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@dGr8LookinSparky, It seems that you put the wrong link in…:slight_smile:

And what if an alien may be able to evolve into booster for some evos, instead of building it? But that booster will wither away after some time?

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18

Oops, double pasted, fixed, thanks :wink: .

Someone did suggest recently to give the basi the ability to give other aliens poison while it is boosted from a booster. It is definitely an interesting suggestion you have @AutumnLegends to allow an alien to obtain temporary booster abilities from evolving.

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19

To be honest, I meant, an alien would sacrifice his life and evos for being a booster building, just decaying over time, and not having a BP cost.

Good luck with the work, by the way! :slight_smile:

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That does seem a bit powerful, it would almost counteract nading alien bases completely if there isn’t any aware aliens. Though it also could be good. :slight_smile:

The whole point of an alien is to be almost opposite of a human (most of the times). Aliens should stay with evolving and changing much like the original aliens but also with the added feature of modules.

These could both be some pretty cool modules for dark maps, ambushes and etc. :slight_smile:

There can be problems with this:

  1. The whole point of having no BP and being able to build a booster is a huge advantage for aliens because of the poison effect.

  2. Humans have no DoT’s at all and don’t have any curable fixes for poison at the cost of credits.

  3. Taking your own life for a booster sounds like a pretty cool idea, but how will it be done?

In this point this could counteract what I have said above, if so we should have a set timer for how long the booster will last or even have a use limit before it runs out.

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