Spotlight: basilisk

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kharnov
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Spotlight: basilisk

Post by kharnov »

Let's take a look at the basilisk.

ImageConcept: Khaos
Model: Cupside
Animation: gavlig
Status: in-progress

As the first new form available to the alien team in the early game, the basilisk provides several advantages over the dretch while retaining portions of its playstyle. Much like its predecessor, the basilisk is a small stealth form, with a comparatively tiny body and silent footsteps. Although much more fragile than a human, it can still take more damage than a dretch. The main draw of the basilisk is its ability to grab human opponents, preventing them from moving or turning around and allowing for the basilisk to easily take down even armored opponents, although this is useless against a battlesuit. In groups, the basilisk will accelerate the healing rate of aliens around it, allowing for it to be useful in more than just a stealthy assassin role, although this remains its primary focus.

ImageWhile our basilisk has not been changed much in regards to gameplay, we are still in the planning stages of figuring out the future of the form. In particular, we do not like how awkwardly the basilisk plays, and we find it to be one of the more strangely designed alien forms. A potential solution is to provide the basilisk with a movement-based attack, much like the other aliens. For instance, we may give it a sort of pounce like the dretch has, while at the same time removing it from the dretch and giving it the invisibility described in yesterday's article. A pounce would allow the basilisk to quickly leap into grabbing range, making it much easier to take a hold on the opponent. However, we are open to other suggestions as well.

hat do you suppose would be a good gameplay change for the basilisk?

Click here to read this article on the main site!

Last edited by kharnov on Thu Nov 14, 2013 2:55 am UTC, edited 1 time in total.
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Elmo
Dretch
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Re: Spotlight: basilisk

Post by Elmo »

So one thing the basilisk really lacked compared to the rest of the alien team was mobility, and with its low health it needs that mobility more or equal to any of the other classes. It's grab ability was tough to use unless you had other aliens with you or were stealthy enough to not be detected, one suggestion is to greatly increase its jump height and speed if you can, more so then a mara, but whereas the maruader jumps and bounces the basilisk can jump and grab onto a wall and jump again precisely.

Last edited by Elmo on Tue Nov 12, 2013 8:46 am UTC, edited 1 time in total.

Long live the legacy of:
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DwarfVader
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Re: Spotlight: basilisk

Post by DwarfVader »

While I would like to see the grap feature improved to make it easier to play, i would also be pleased if it would be removed at all and the focus of the basilisks capabilities would be shifted over to a more medic/supporter like class: greater healing range plus a faster healing rate, very slightly improved combat capabilities ( health, speed, attack power ) and a new feature: refreshing the poison of teammates nearby ( if a booster is active somewhere ).

Some concerns about the alien models as such ( in this case the basilisk ): How should/could such a fragile alien grap a human in place? its forearms doesn't reflect that. I would rather expect such a feature from a more massive and heavier lifeform like a dragoon for example. Please take the fact into consideration, that the capabilities you give certain alien classes have to some extend match their size and appereance. an exaggerated example for this would be a dretch roaring damaging and trambling with tyrant capabilities...

:dretch: * im a tyrant: ROOOAR :tyrant: * oh no dretch gone mad ** god help us all

Dracone
Dretch
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Re: Spotlight: BASLICK BASLICK BASLICK BASLICK BASLICK

Post by Dracone »

I'm thinking that in general the focus should be on the idea that the baslick can be a support class that functions as the aliens' "disabler", regardless of whether or not it stays as grab. Abilities oriented towards that sound ok to me, so long as obviously overpowered stuff is avoided. Need to require effort to land or use the disables.

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Viech
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Re: Spotlight: basilisk

Post by Viech »

kharnov asked me yesterday about my plans for the lisk but it was five in the morning and I had been debugging and cleaning up our code for countless hours before and I waived him off, so here comes my input.

I believe the current lisk's gameplay is fundamentally flawed and I don't want to copy over its grab ability (or in other words, I want the lisk to be replaced with a new class). The key problem of the current lisk is the lack of flexibility. The grab is very strong in a few situations and very weak in many others. No matter what extra abilities we would give it, we can do little about the fact that the grab abilitiy doesn't scale properly with the enemy equipment (very strong against non-bsuit, non-luci, very weak against bsuit or luci) and with the number of enemies (very strong against a single player, close to useless against a coordinated team). It also doesn't scale nicely with the number of teammates: While any other alien special attack (zap, pounce, trample) stacks, a human can only be grabbed (or disoriented) once.

For similiar reasons I also don't want to keep the lisk's ability to power down buildables by its presence (currently it consumes power just like human structures):

Viech wrote:

Still, this is just another completely random ability that has been given to the lisk in order to make it useful, with neglible success. The design of the lisk as a whole is flawed. The key problem is that it lacks flexibility. As outlined above, the lisk is strong in certain situations but almost completely useless in a lot of important scenarios. The power consumption didn't change anything about that (in fact, it follows the same flawed design: The lisk is now stronger against small forwards but the new skill is entirely useless against 99% of all main bases).

I'd say it's likely that the lisk will end up having the pounce ability that is currently stored on the advanced dretch, maybe with some on-hit effect that might include reducing stamina or slowing down or paralyzing for a very short time. However, the lisk will stay agile after using this attack, potentially being able to fight small groups of humans by using it on each of them, martial arts style.

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StalKermit
Dragoon
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Re: Spotlight: basilisk

Post by StalKermit »

No mention of the Basilisk's gas? That was the funnest ability in the entire game. I'd run around maps hoping to find a Basilisk to gas me...

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Viech
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Re: Spotlight: basilisk

Post by Viech »

Elmo wrote:

So one thing the basilisk really lacked compared to the rest of the alien team was mobility, and with its low health it needs that mobility more or equal to any of the other classes. It's grab ability was tough to use unless you had other aliens with you or were stealthy enough to not be detected, one suggestion is to greatly increase its jump height and speed if you can, more so then a mara, but whereas the maruader jumps and bounces the basilisk can jump and grab onto a wall and jump again precisely.

I agree with all of this and this would be the path to go when the dretch pounce is given to the lisk. It would be able to jump quickly from wall to wall, dodging the enemy fire and striking unexpectedly.

DwarfVader wrote:

i would also be pleased if […] the focus of the basilisks capabilities would be shifted over to a more medic/supporter like class

Dracone wrote:

I'm thinking that in general the focus should be on the idea that the baslick can be a support class that functions as the aliens' "disabler", regardless of whether or not it stays as grab.

I think every class should be an attacker and not just a supporter. Pure support abilities and combat abilities that compensate your teammates' weaknesses are always a nice addition though and I think disabling effects are viable as long as they are either not binary (grabbed/not-grabbed) but stack just like damage or are very short lived and need to be landed often to achieve a good degree of control over your enemy.

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DwarfVader
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Re: Spotlight: basilisk

Post by DwarfVader »

Viech wrote: I think every class should be an attacker and not just a supporter

Not "just" but also. I would count it as a step back, if in particular the healing capabilities would be removed completely.

I don't know how others feel about it, but i am a strong representative of the "advocating very diffrent gameplay for both teams fraction" ( including UI layout and design AND of course classes and usable equipment ). so please don't streamline everything in favor of a steady growing attack ability for the alien classes. let some variety stay in the game. If one would like to chill as builder let him, if one would like to heal instead of only fighting the enemy, let him.

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killing time
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Re: Spotlight: basilisk

Post by killing time »

I suggest the basilisk be replaced with a new class, the MFU (Mobile Flatulence Unit).

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Viech
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Re: Spotlight: basilisk

Post by Viech »

killing time wrote:

I suggest the basilisk be replaced with a new class, the MFU (Mobile Flatulence Unit).

Hey, you're back! We missed your educated comments so much. :drool:

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