Spotlight: marauder

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kharnov
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Spotlight: marauder

Post by kharnov »

Now for the marauder.

ImageConcept: Khaos
Model: Osiris
Animation: gavlig
Status: complete

Marauders are the intermediate form of the alien morphological sequence, between the more insectoid features of the dretch and basilisk, and the more reptilian traits of the dragoon and tyrant. Alarmingly agile, the marauder is capable of building up great speed by leaping off walls, allowing for it to rapidly climb up narrow vertical shafts and corridors with high ceilings. The rapid pace of the marauder's movement is matched by its attacks, with its claws capable doing a great deal of damage in a matter of seconds. In addition, the marauder is capable of emitting a bolt of electricity, damaging chains of humans and their base structures. Thus, the marauder works particularly well against isolated humans and in groups against bases, although the form has some trouble with the heavier human weapons.

ImageOur marauder hasn't changed gameplay-wise from its Tremulous counterpart, due to us considering the form to be one of the better designed aliens. There aren't any glaring weaknesses with the marauder, and it is particularly fun to play as, not to mention that it doesn't have a particularly steep learning curve, unlike the basilisk before it. However, there are other considerations now. For instance, humans have access to a heavier armor class before the battlesuit, which may pose some additional difficulty for marauder players in the mid-game. We have yet to see how the marauder would interact with rocket pods, as well as any other base defenses or weapons that we end up adding.

How do you feel about the marauder? Is it overpowered or underpowered? What would you suggest to change, if anything?

Click here to read this article on the main site!

Last edited by kharnov on Thu Nov 14, 2013 2:56 am UTC, edited 1 time in total.
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killing time
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Re: Spotlight: marauder

Post by killing time »

Maras are very good. I don't think they are easy to learn; instead they are rewarding to players who develop a high level of skill in the marauder class.

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Tom
Dragoon
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Re: Spotlight: marauder

Post by Tom »

I agree with you both, the marauder is a very versatile and fun to play class. First by its agility, its speed, but also by its learning curve – you never see its limit, I played for many years now and am still amazed by this class. What a pleasure to cross a map at full speed while flying over the heads of humans, if you are one of those who loves strafe jumping then this class is orgasmic. :advmarauder:

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Viech
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Re: Spotlight: marauder

Post by Viech »

Tom wrote:

What a pleasure to cross a map at full speed while flying over the heads of humans, if you are one of those who loves strafe jumping then this class is orgasmic. :advmarauder:

Try it in the outside area of Snowstation, it's awesome. :grin:

Responsible for: Arch Linux package & torrent distribution, Parpax (map), Chameleon (map texture editor), Sloth (material file generator), gameplay design & programming, artistic direction

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EmperorJack
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Re: Spotlight: marauder

Post by EmperorJack »

I like the new marauder model but I'd like to see the texture become a bit more slimy and organic. It looks too dry and hard for an alien currently. Perhaps it should be made to look more like the dretch or the new basilisk in this aspect.

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kharnov
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Re: Spotlight: marauder

Post by kharnov »

Let's lubricate it.

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StalKermit
Dragoon
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Re: Spotlight: marauder

Post by StalKermit »

kharnov wrote:

Let's lubricate it.

If you were talking about the Dretch you could say "Let's lube up the D". It's funny because "The D" is synonymous with the word penis. And some people lube penises.

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ViruS
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Re: Spotlight: marauder

Post by ViruS »

Just wondering, if we're keeping similarities between the alien classes, why does the marauder's back curve down?

There aren't any glaring weaknesses

Yes there is. Overhead shooting with the shotgun, flamethrowers and timed luci/md shots :P

not to mention that it doesn't have a particularly steep learning curve, unlike the basilisk before it

Whaaaa?!? I found the complete opposite! Basilisk is easy: Sneak up, grab, swipe away! Marauder is more fast-paced and you're supposed to abuse your jump height (which I never liked the lower jump height nerf, although it did solve the ceiling problem in nano)

We have yet to see how the marauder would interact with rocket pods

O shi-, I forgot. This would be the perfect anti-marauder equipement if the jetpack works the way I think it does.

Changes requested:

  1. Revert to 1.1-style zap (non-instantaneous) damage dealing as it stops the "around the corner." Reading back at my old comment on the tremulous forum, someone mentioned "it isn't realistic to not be instantaneous" but if you think about it, the graphics lasted over a period of time too.

There was a feature I added to the 1.1 zap to make it more playable but also prevent abusing it's longer range as a substitute for the claw by forcing a maximum "intiation" range but kept the maximum damage dealing range for combat so a person getting just outside the initiation range doesn't get imediately cut off.

  1. If there was something I enjoyed about the marauder that was taken away, it were the jump height and the manouvreability on walls.
    I posted on github somewhere about how this "wall climbing" issue originated and is actually a form of what some call "velocity clipping" (not cutting off the velocity when cutting off displacement when collidng with surfaces after a jump) and I actually implemented this into the Tremulous GPP cuboid mod for all classes rather than just marauder to see if it had any significant gameplay differences.
    Apart from the dodgy buggy "sliding past corners" appearence it didn't have much of a gameplay difference as the marauder's transition from 1.1 to GPP where in 1.1 you required two parrel walls to climb a certain height whereas now you can literally stick to a wall, and in the case of ATCS, you can actually hit the skybox doing so provided if you do it perfectly while clipping at the base entrances.

  2. Surpising from me as having this my favourite class, I actually want the advance marauder's health to be dumb-downed to 165 hp. I find it that I can dish out a lot of damage and with no duet of humans able to chase and kill me successfully provided that I'm paying attention to what I was doing. The massive air acceleration constant is a unique trait to the marauder but it can sometimes be a bit overpowering.

If there was an alien that matches long-timer survival like the lasgun does, it's the marauder for me (while most people prefer the dragoon, actually I think the dragoon's speed buff should never have happened).

rolandixor
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Re: Spotlight: marauder

Post by rolandixor »

It needs two things:- Easier electrical attack (it could be weaker, but more likely to hit a running human when you are bouncing around trying to avoid getting smoked).- A weak, but quick to reload snipe ability.

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ViruS
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Re: Spotlight: marauder

Post by ViruS »

rolandixor wrote:

It needs two things:- Easier electrical attack (it could be weaker, but more likely to hit a running human when you are bouncing around trying to avoid getting smoked).- A weak, but quick to reload snipe ability.

You pretty much stated the KoRx mod's marauder right there.

  1. Don't have to aim, but just get close and hold right click. It also drains energy ammo.
  2. 3 weak barbs that do 40 damage, can fire every 0.5 seconds, and reloads one per second. (Suprisingly it wasn't said to be OP, it was a very good anti-camping class as supposed to the adv tyrant with 600 hp and its acid blob
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