Fantasy: Aliens

[CFalcon]

TaO's fantasy pirates suggestion got me thinking, and I noticed in the 'design directions' thread that Azzer mentioned he'd like the third fantasy route to be themed on Aliens.

I realise that a new route is very low on the agenda right now, and that chances of this being implemented are zero. I'm just treating this as a thought exercise.

The route is very much aimed at taking out strikers, and at taking out the early rush units (PBs, PAs, Sorcs, Gargs). This centres very much around the 'NightReaper' unit, a stealthed armour killer, which is meant to be the 'main' unit of the route.
I've also tried to make the route an easy target for Rangers, which have it pretty tough at the moment.

The two things I particularly wanted to add were:

Another briber to the game, as people really do seem to enjoy bribing

An armoured stealth unit, which is severely lacking atm (F117s don't count )


---------
Serf/Acolyte - close NLT killer - same as before

Want to rename the unit so that it fits slightly better with the theme. Acolyte works for all three fantasy branches.

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"Trailblazer" - Stuns - R/M/C - NLT/LET - ETA 3 - middling initiative, between Ranger and Ninja **/*/***/** - cost in high 30s, low 40s
Intended to come out after officers, slightly before petrols

Intended as an early answer to PBs, and with an additional function as a sweeper-disabler

These scouts spread across the cosmos looking for worlds to colonise. Once a likely target is found they prepare the way for the horde by
supressing resistance and disabling military installations.

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"PredatorSwarm" - Kills - M/C - ALL/LET - ETA 4 - mid/late init, between SD and PB - */*/**/** - cost in high teens
Come out soon after Trailblazer around same time as shocks

Intended mainly as a flak killer, because Serfs + Trailblazers are *very* open to being flakked, with some use as LET flak too

The expendable foot soldier of the horde, they are conditioned to think nothing of their own life, but only of spreading pain and terror amongst
those who resist.

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"NightReaper" - Kills - R/M/C - LET - ETA 4 {1} - low/mid init, between harrier and TL - ***/***/*/***** - STEALTH - cost in 70s
Come out after PA/Sorc, slightly before CW/Striker

Intended as beefed up assassin, able to take out strikers, PAs, Gargs, and Sorcs to a degree, but intentionally put after harrier to give harrier some targets.
Also wanted to give the game an armoured stealth unit, something which is lacking. Stealthed armour killers are also lacking, assuming TL gets a nerf.
*s very much open to debate here

Part space-craft, part alien; a melding of living tissue with Alien technology, evolved and perfected over countless interstellar wars.

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"Z-Type" - Bribes - R/M - ALL - ETA 5 - high init, between Ranger and Apache - ***/**/***/** - cost in 80s/90s
A scaled down puppet, or a beefed up hypno

Again, intentionally between ranger and apache, to allow ranger to target this route, but to allow the Z-Type to sweep behind NightReaper and kill Apaches/Marines

The masterminds of the horde, able to direct their troops through thought alone. Their genius strength of mind and will is able to turn weaker minded foes against each other.

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PUnit: Mothership - Kills - M/C - LET/ALL - ETA 5 - high init, after TD and puppet, before HW - *****/***/*****/***** - cost 150-200k
A cross between Dragon and TRex

Wanted to make the PUnit not a neccesary part of the route, although still useful.
Fills the Z-Type's sweeper role on the close tick.

Designed to protect the horde in transit at all costs, and able to reduce entire cities, nations and even planets with their collosal firepower.
If you survive it's waves of NightReapers, you won't survive this.

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If anyone can do a better job with names than I can, that might be good


Looking at those stats, I reckon this is how it will go down:

SpecOps SA have no trouble with this route, other than Motherships
---------Puppets will have trouble, tho they have trouble with everything, so...

Thugs have no trouble, TLs will rip it apart

Robots will have trouble, robos open to stealth rushes (hopefully TL get taken down a notch)

Fantasy Vamps should win against this route, tho might have trouble with motherships. Will have trouble without vamps.
--------Sorcs without dragons will have trouble, Sorcs with dragons should beat it easy

Military Strikers will have alot of trouble with this route
-------Rangers will tear up this route
-------RPGs will tear it up also

So only beats a few routes on it's own, although Motherships + Bribing ability will allow a solo to patch up some of the gaps.

NightReaper unit will be a big benefit to alliances, making up for the route's weaknesses elsewhere.

 

[atsanjose]

hell, and i always thought that there was a reason stealth units didnt have much armour..

 

[TehPantz]

I would support the Alien route only if Wookies are involved

 

[pinpower]

Star Trek has to be involved in some way or im out.

Edit: Slightly more on topic my first thought would be that the anti-PB unit shouldnt come out before PBs...maybe JUST after so if you are quick to tech you have a counter-PB unit quickly but PBs still have that small window to own!

(I was going to comment on how i like the idea but a new route isnt needed but you already said that so i'll just comment further on the units themselves once ive had another read through.)

 

[tobapopalos]

Star Trek has to be involved in some way or im out.

Apparently that isn't allowed due to copyright, otherwise I'd try and get my Star Wars route introduced again

 

[Madmeater]

Ah damn, the pirate idea got me to make an aliens route too, I'll post my idea here in the hopes that they will influence you

FYI my route was based around Ridley Scott's: Aliens
^_^

 

[Madmeater]

Ok here's my idea, it may seem amateur but my intentions are good. This is intended more to help get people thinking, and I donot expect most people to like my ideas

The costs and init are rough ideas, so dont take them at face value.

Feel free to nitpick

Justifications

Stalker
My direction with this unit was, initially, an early stealth rush unit, but decided instead, on a cheap, health based health killer.
This unit can be used as a counter for petrol bombers early on, and perhaps should get a bonus against them.
Mid/late round these guys can still be rushed but are very squishy. Perhaps a source of let flak?


Hugger
This is the main INN sweeper for the route. It has a low ETA for alliance defence. Fires close only so this would be most effective as a last tick
measure. Should convert kills into alien spawns at a high rate, to compensate for their late firing, and should get a very high ratio against flak
to make it a worthy sweeper. Is very cheap (Much like an attack dog) so is a good source of flak for the route. If you can get something to sweep
for this unit, it will devastate a flak attack and get a good conversion rate.

Spawn
This unit is gained by killing units with either the hugger or the queen unit (More on that later).
This unit is a health based, fair damage rush unit. In my mind it is something like the zerglings from starcraft, cheap and nasty, with strength in numbers.
It fires all 3 ticks making it a good Unit for defence aswell as offense. It fires fairly early, but it can be countered by fast firing health killers such as PA, SA or vamps.
These guys should be cheap so that you get alot in conversions.
May also provide yet more flak for bigger units.

Acid spewer
Health based, fast firing armour stripper. These guys have a small amount of armour to helm them survive a PA rush, but not so much that massed Health killers cant take them down easily. Fires before strikers, making them useful to tear them apart, and should perhaps have a small bonus to help them kill strikers/apaches.
Targets INN aswell to kill tractors
Looking at it now, this unit should fire later, after most units, creating a need for other players to provide armour strippers

LaNDING POD
The armour flak for the route. In my mind, these land on units, and so fire close, are stealthed, and deal moderate health damage.
Provides some cover from health killing routes, but are devved late (last)

Queen
OK this is the beast of the route. The queen has high 5* health and deals powerful health damage. They strip some armour and also have some armour (High 2*) to
help them survive an anti-health attack. Targets NLD to plug the routes POM weakness and Converts it's kills into Spawns, creating alot more than huggers do.

Directions for the route:

First and foremost, all units in this route aside from landing pods have the new type of "Xeno"
This will allow other routes to be balanced around this new route.

Cyrus suggested in another thread that Strikers are a route that needs a counter, So strikers and apaches could get an armour reduction against unit type:Xeno,
reflecting the aliens' diamond hard claws ripping through the armour.

I would also love to see marines get a health and armour reduction against Xenos "That's it, Game over man, game over"

Also, my intention was that the robotics route would be a counter for this route, so for example; cybernetic warriors, PA and crazed droids could get a health damage bonus vs Xenos to show that the robotic weapon systems are designed with xeno extermination in mind.

This route features concepts already in the game, and makes use of other route's strengths/weaknesses.

The route's main weakness is it's lack of true Flak killers and Armour based units until the landing pods are devved.

It is also very poor at targeting NLD, meaning that POMs are a huge enemy until queens are devved, and even so, queens fire later than POMs
Meaning distractors still have a chance to rip through the largely health based units.

The route develops an early sweeper, in the hugger, meaning there is still a heavy reliance on generics to stop flak attacks.
This hugger unit has a low ETA, meaning it is useful for alliance defence, and it is a cheap source of flak for other, more valuable lets.

The hugger unit also creates the spawn unit, which is a health based LET/ALL targeting rush unit, with fair offensive capabilities,
useful for stopping petrol bombers, with the stalker firing afterwards to sweep.

Mid round, this route will have a small army of health killers, but most of the units are very squishy, until the spewers are devved:

These units are huge corrosive acid spewing monstrosities. They feature high 4* health and a small amount of armour to stop vamps/PA/SA/POM from
Chewing them up.
They fire before strikers and should have a bonus against them, to give them a more specific purpose.
The spewers strip for the other units in the route, giving them a fighting chance against armour, mainly the robotics route, which is a strong counter to this route.

Strengths of this route include good rushing capabilities, as most units have low ETA. It features cheap flak and decent health based health killers.

Units should have some bonuses against strikers to give the route more direction, but overall it handles well as a LET killing route.

It's weaknesses are it's low armour damage until the spewers are introduced, but these are expensive and are health based, and so are succeptable to POMS/SA/PA/Vamps

It has no real armour based units until the Landing pods are devved, but these are expensive and are last to be devved before the p-unit.

The routes p-unit plugs in the weakness to protestors and provides a strong health killer to the route. Has a low eta and medium init, allowing rush capabilities.

The queen also produces lots and lots of spawns

 

[Polo]

Just a couple of comments aimed at CFalcoln's suggestion:

Having a stunning unit along with a bribing unit in the same route is not a good idea. I also think we have enough bribing units in game, however I'd be happy to see another converter.

Another stealth route would be great, imo. When I spoke to Azzer when we were discussing unit balances for this round, I mentioned an armoured stealth unit/route (as that's one thing the game does not have at all) and he seemed interested.

One thing that quite a few people have mentioned - the game could do with a late firing AD unit in large-scale BRs. This is something the game is missing and something I totally agree with.

Finally, some people have said the game needs to be balanced before a new route is introduced. This is rubbish. A new route will introduce imbalance and some routes/units may need to be tweaked around it. Thus, it makes sense to implement a new route as soon as it's ready and fix any other imbalances in the game at the same time.

Edit: PB and TL aren't overpowered btw.

 

[Souls]

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AkVUdkv-OBnXdGY4MWlZZm0tZkVsMVhKcUc3VHd3OXc&hl=en

Spreadsheet of your route suggestion, with what I thought were suitable prices, and a change to Mothership's HP/AR, as I thought it was backwards.

 

[Dafydd]

I've thought that a briber/converter which was a flak monster - essentially it kills flak, and only flak, and give in return, a degree of flak.

some kind of 'Clone Pod' or something similar, which would get a fairly decent kill rate on flak and then a percentage become cloned as new gardners / harvies.

 

[Jase]

I've thought that a briber/converter which was a flak monster - essentially it kills flak, and only flak, and give in return, a degree of flak.

some kind of 'Clone Pod' or something similar, which would get airlydecent kill rate on flak, and then a percentage become cloned as new gardners / harvies.

First thing that came to my head when i read azzers post was something similar, alien unit that converts/bribes INN only would suit alien persona perfectly as people ((INN) Saying RL People are INN makes me sound so geeky...)) are always saying they been abducted, could you really have an alien route without one??

 

[Madmeater]

I've thought that a briber/converter which was a flak monster - essentially it kills flak, and only flak, and give in return, a degree of flak.

some kind of 'Clone Pod' or something similar, which would get airlydecent kill rate on flak, and then a percentage become cloned as new gardners / harvies.

First thing that came to my head when i read azzers post was something similar, alien unit that converts/bribes INN only would suit alien persona perfectly as people ((INN) Saying RL People are INN makes me sound so geeky...)) are always saying they been abducted, could you really have an alien route without one??

I had the idea for a prober, which became the basis of my facehugger idea

 

[Jase]

I've thought that a briber/converter which was a flak monster - essentially it kills flak, and only flak, and give in return, a degree of flak.

some kind of 'Clone Pod' or something similar, which would get airlydecent kill rate on flak, and then a percentage become cloned as new gardners / harvies.

First thing that came to my head when i read azzers post was something similar, alien unit that converts/bribes INN only would suit alien persona perfectly as people ((INN) Saying RL People are INN makes me sound so geeky...)) are always saying they been abducted, could you really have an alien route without one??

I had the idea for a prober, which became the basis of my facehugger idea

I like the idea of facehugger as a like the alien films but a INN briber/converter would make this route very unique

 

[Davs]

if you wanted a unit that covnerted INN to INN then you'd need a whole new INN unit to convert to, or else it would seem like a pointless effort (might as well just get a briber that targets INN only). With a new unit to convert to I reckon it sounds like an interesting idea though

 

[Souls]

Something akin to CGs, but with more armour? Seeing as you're not able to mass them.

 

[Davs]

Something akin to CGs, but with more armour? Seeing as you're not able to mass them.

sounds nice to me

But something like seed thieves could be a tad more exciting

 

[Madmeater]

Something akin to CGs, but with more armour? Seeing as you're not able to mass them.

sounds nice to me

But something like seed thieves could be a tad more exciting

Alien locust
class:INN
Attack type: Steals stored seeds [close]
stats:**/**/1000 seeds
eta:5
initiative: 900
Errupting from the corpses, in which they were incubated, these vile insects swarm over the land, stripping all plant life and leaving entire acres bare.

 

[Davs]

I like

EDIT: But just for the sake of matching the description - have it destroy planted plants? Just a thought.

 

[Ogluk]

but then it'd just be a copy of the old arsonist

 

[Dafydd]

Indeed, arsonists werent used, nor would this.

How about;

Name: Human-Abductor [£20,000]
Unit Type: Alien
Unit Class: LET
Converts to: Xeno-Harvester
Attack type: Converts [close]
Targets: Inn
Stats: ** / ** / ** / *
ETA: 3
Initiative: 635
Route(s): Alien
Description: Evolved aliens require workers for tasks in harsh and barren enviroments. They take your workers and make them stronger - better - but not all survive the process..

Name: Xeno-Harvester [£45,000]
Unit Type: Living
Unit Class: INN
Attack type: Harvests [close]
Stats: ** / *** / 10,000 seeds.
ETA: 2
Initiative: 955