Alium weed healing

[Malkevin]

Is still dumb.

Aliums should have to sleep on top of weeds to regenerate their health.

[CPTANT]

Is still dumb.

Aliums should have to sleep on top of weeds to regenerate their health.

It works just fine now. If you fight on their territory, they get the advantage.

[Steelpoint]

Problem is there Cptant is that their 'territory' is very easy to expand.

Its not a case of humans fighting in a alien main hive, its the case of many if not most aliens (I think all aliens can plant weeds) being able to plant weeds and aliens being incentivised to plant weeds everywhere they go. Many encounters with aliens you'll find there to be weed nearby.

Prehaps look at restricting weed placement to the Queen and Drones, lord knows no one plays as a Drone so you may as well give a better reason outside of it being the step to being a Queen.

[peoplearestrange]

Aliens are supposed to be scary as fuck, they're supposed to be taken out at range with caution. And to be honest, most of the xeno rounds i've witnessed of late, unless they go undected for long enough to get a nest up they get wiped out pretty damn quickly.

[Malkevin]

The problem is that off the weeds aliums are pretty weak, especially with the bonus damage from fire they receive (which Kor added because of weed healing), whereas on the weeds they're damn near impossible to kill, even if you do set them on fire with a flamethrower - they just run back to the unscorched weeds they have just off screen.

I think aliums should be an aggressive predator rather than a turtlerer

[Gun Hog]

Hit em with a flamethrower. It will take care of the weeds AND push the aliens back. If you manage to crit one, simply drag it off the weeds to finish it. Aliens go down fast due to their burn/fire weakness. I find Xenos to be plenty aggressive once they get set up. Considering their purpose of bringing rounds to an end or providing a strong challenge to the crew, I believe that no change is needed to them at this time.

[Oldman Robustin]

I love all the middling complaints about aliens when they are all massively dwarfed by the state of hunters right now.

Making the crew slower while keeping the hunters sanic fast was ALL that hunters ever needed for a buff.

Instead some coder made it his/her pet project to add the ridiculous leap system and now xenos have swung back to their "unstoppable genocide machine" state. I've said many times, and I stand by this, unless RnD gets laser cannons out I would rather play an alien hunter than a wizard if I had to murder the entire station. Leap is an instant teleportation win button, once you understand how to avoid wallstuns you can easily use to escape from any threat or destroy any foe. Every fight I've had as a hunter went something like this:

1) Leave vent with leap on
2) Click player as soon as I exit vent
3) Congrats you win

Ventcrawling, sanic speed, regeneration, infinite spammable stuns, and pseudo-invisibility is already an extremely robust package... why in god's name is leap still a thing?

If you're too "muh snowflake code" about leap, then at least give it a very significant cooldown or make the stun apply to any leap that doesn't hit a player. Xenos simply cannot be taken seriously as long as hunter is in its current state. Sentinels were supposed to be the ranged capability of the xeno's but hunter fills that role too now, it's just absurd.

[RG4]

Xenos are suppose to be overpowered because they're almost exclusively used as round extenders,special events, or the very rare xeno round.
;^)

[Malkevin]

Leap is gay because there's no counters to it, even shields don't protect you

[Grazyn]

Xenos usually come up late in a round, when the crew has at least 1 fully equipped combat mech, high end energy weapons, and a self healing/godlike virus. They can only work as round enders if they have some overpowered trick like weed healing to withstand the barrage of shit that a bored crew is going to throw them.

[Steelpoint]

Last time I tested leaps do block leaping aliens.

Sadly it does not stun them, if shield stunned leaping aliens I would be so happy.

[Oldman Robustin]

I hate that excuse for Xeno's, they been closer to a balanced & entertaining antag for a possible gametype than several of the gametypes we've had in rotation for years.

If admin wants to end a round there are better ways to do it than something that will inevitably slaughter the entire crew. Forcing xenos to be an unbalanced shitshow because you're trying to get them to compete with combat mechs is just a asinine approach. Either come up with a more elegant way to end the round or make sentinel/queen acid spit do an unholy amount of damage to mechs. Having hunters be an unstoppable genocide machine isn't even an answer to mechs, it's just a way to slaughter the entire crew while avoiding the mech entirely.

[Saegrimr]

Weeds do not outheal fire, if you're set on fire while standing on a weed tile you're just plain fucked unless you can make it to space fast enough to put it out. Unless you're a hunter or already near space, you're probably not gonna make it.

[Steelpoint]

I've seen one hunter robust a team of death squad with the leap function.

That should answer your question, so long as the alien is competent its easy as crap to down a lot of people quickly with the leap function.

[Not-Dorsidarf]

Weeds do not outheal fire, if you're set on fire while standing on a weed tile you're just plain fucked unless you can make it to space fast enough to put it out. Unless you're a hunter or already near space, you're probably not gonna make it.

-> run offscreen
-> pop your invisibilty (super-effective on the identically-colored weeds!)
-> hit the resist button
-> Heal all the damage in about fifteen seconds

[Saegrimr]

Weeds do not outheal fire, if you're set on fire while standing on a weed tile you're just plain fucked unless you can make it to space fast enough to put it out. Unless you're a hunter or already near space, you're probably not gonna make it.

-> run offscreen
-> pop your invisibilty (super-effective on the identically-colored weeds!)
-> hit the resist button
-> Heal all the damage in about fifteen seconds

Hoooold up, xenos can stop drop & roll now? Well shit that changes things.

[Steelpoint]

They've been able to do that for a long time.

[WJohnston]

Are we really complaining about this? Xenos are not that hard to fight. All you have to do is get a flamethrower and there's very little they can do to stop you. Although I think being able to clear alien weeds more quickly would be nice. Maybe have it so it clears a 3x3 square or + shape every time you hit a piece with a welder.

And for hunter leaping, it's 100% blocked by shields, leaving them in a vulnerable state of having to switch off their leap intent in order to try and tackle you. Really though, aliens have tons of counters, you need only use them. It's the same deal with fighting a blob. Too often I see a jackass security officer attacking a blob with a wrench by himself while standing next to an open vacuum, and getting his ass handed to him. That's not overpowered, that's you being a dumbass. For whatever reason, EVERYONE does this sort of stupid shit when fighting aliens, learn the strategies.

[Laharl Monthy]

Alright, I generally play the Drone/Queen game as alien (nothing beats making facehuggers traps all over the damn place), so here's my two cents on Xeno Counters :

-Flamethrowers (easily available to engie, who ALSO use hardsuits)
-Lasers. 3 laser shots takes an alien down.
-Mechs. Generally, if the stations has a combat mech, the aliens will have no chance in hell to go out of control. (That's probably where you should switch to guerilla tactics)
-Also, yes, shields. If I remember well, they work against stun swipes, too. So advancing using shield and deploying a firing line with 2 other sec members would be effective. And, yes, you can't lonewolf aliens, unless you go full Cuban Pete. (Extra points if you backed yourself in a autocloner before doing so)
-To end it, when Xenos are discovered, shuttle is always instantly called, even if it's a lone queen.

If you have a Xeno Hive in the xenobio pen, it's also a good idea to set up some contigencies, in case of a release. A Mech with Solaris on standby, bombs...

In short, if Xenos are busted early and/or spawned too late into the round (By that, I mean RnD got their research done alongside with mining working), they have not much chance to take over the station - they will not have the time to expand, or they will simply be eradicated. I haven't seen aliens taking over a round in a bloody long while. It would be nice if we'd actually have some statistics on how many times aliens ended up occupying the shuttle each time they spawned...

Tho, if you'd really want to nerf the alien weed overexpansion, restrict the weed planting to drones and queens. But I really don't think that's necessary.

[Oldman Robustin]

Are we really complaining about this? Xenos are not that hard to fight. All you have to do is get a flamethrower and there's very little they can do to stop you. Although I think being able to clear alien weeds more quickly would be nice. Maybe have it so it clears a 3x3 square or + shape every time you hit a piece with a welder.

And for hunter leaping, it's 100% blocked by shields, leaving them in a vulnerable state of having to switch off their leap intent in order to try and tackle you. Really though, aliens have tons of counters, you need only use them. It's the same deal with fighting a blob. Too often I see a jackass security officer attacking a blob with a wrench by himself while standing next to an open vacuum, and getting his ass handed to him. That's not overpowered, that's you being a dumbass. For whatever reason, EVERYONE does this sort of stupid shit when fighting aliens, learn the strategies.

> Switching intent is somehow now a "vulnerable state", its a bloody hotkey and you're stun immune, without a lascannon there's nothing they can do to dunk you before you tap a hotkey and click them down. Or just leap/run away at sanic speed, there's nothing they can do to catch you either way.

>Someone flamethrows you, you leap them, moving at approximately 5,000 meters/s you drag them to a space tile while tackle spamming - the flames will barely tickle you before extinguishing and fastmos means the "painful afterheat" will be gone in 30 seconds.

The fact you even think a flamethrower is still an effective xeno counter shows how out of touch you are. Maybe if its just you vs. a queen, but a halfway competent hunter is just going to slamdunk you.