Hi all if you know my tag De-D3 you know I am an avid and dedicated carrier player (yes im masochistic)
I feel Carrier is becoming less and less effective every day. Every day less marines fall for traps, and less marines push into primed huggers. These are really the only ways carrier can get hugs outside of queen scree or having a stunned marine delivered to them. The carrier is lacking utility in a very bad way.
The carrier also (as I’ve said many times before) has all of the downsides of being a heavy with none of the benefits) I mean 30 slash damage isnt bad but theres never really a reason carrier should be using it unless it’s trying to fight for its life (good luck for previously stated reasons) The carrier is as defenseless as a newborn even vs a single bold marine and while the carrier isn’t designed to be a combat caste, let’s not completely rob it of any sort of form of self defense or protection, I have two ideas that I believe won’t be game breaking but encourage more people to give carrier a try and allow it to flourish a bit more than its current sad state.
Throw hugger ability This ability throws a hugger circa 6 squares or so. The hugger is not primed. It kind of sits there and dies unless a trap is under it. Sometimes you can sort of kind of almost make this useful-ish. But not really, you are more often than not better off just holding on to your huggers.
how can we improve it? Give it a 20-30 second cooldown. Give it a short cast time (the carrier prepares to launch the hugger) and then change the hugger to be in the primed state as soon as it lands. This would give the carrier sort of some hope of being able to perhaps have some form of self defense and give it a small amount of utility on the battlefield. Although 9 times out of 10 as most huggers it will probably still do nothing unless a marine walks right on top of it but it will at least give “throw hugger” some bit of usefulness in some situations like needing to get a quick cap or using it in conjunction with some other xenos abilities.
Edit: After discussion in thread instant primed hugger can be more of an issue and possibly discussing the possibility of a Faster priming hugger may be more reasonable.
Armor Carrier could use some armor, it is a massive caste. probably one of the biggest and is as frail as paper for something so large and so slow. Most marines know and understand you can rush down a carrier with ease and no worry at all, they go down very quickly and I’ve noticed its one reason carrier is not a popular pick.
How to fix this within reason Give carrier base armor of 10. And for every hugger carrier holds on their body give them .5 armor. So for example with 10 huggers equipped carrier gets 5 additional armor. This will at least let them be able to take some form of punishment.
Edit: If you are super against these ideas I’d like to know your personal playtime/experience with carrier personally and why you think these minor changes would be so outlandish or if you have any other suggestions. I’ll need a good reason as to why “throw hugger” should remain in a useless state.
To be honest I think burrower and carrier ought to be combined. Both are very important to overall hive success, but are pretty unsatisfying to play and don’t have a ton of utility. You basically just do one thing the whole round and there’s very little mechanical skill involved.
Yeah I agree that carrier is a bit underpowered in the current state of things. But you can still be such a massive gremlin with carrier and make a huge impact on rounds if you do it right. knowing when you can run out and tackle a marine for a free hug can net you some caps or at least hugs, which is really helpful for the hive, as well as being there to just hug whatever caps anyone else manages to get.
I think the most common carrier player is definitely a new player. you mainly see really new xenos playing carrier, probably because they’re either drawn to the fact that it’s a non-combat caste and therefore less is expected of them, or that they just like the idea of going out and hugging marines. Which kind of leads to a non-trivial amount of new carriers going out and dying with eggs or going eggsac and dying, giving marines eggs for pretty much free.
Almost every other round “Young carrier XX has died with precious eggs!” pops up on the screen. I’ve said before any caste dealing with eggs needs to be timelocked. So Queen and Carrier both. At the very least eggsac carrier strain. But this also begs the question how many are doing this on purpose? Another topic i suppose
I miss the old old days of hugger combat where carriers were menaces and marines depended on shipments of helmets and RnD helmet gel because helmets were the only thing standing between you and getting one shot to a 3 second channel time cast across the screen by a single big bug in the middle of a swarm
Right now eggs aren’t really functioning as they should idk if its a bug or what but alot of times the hugger is not responding saw a runner die trying to use eggsac carriers egg because the marine got up while the hugger was active under it for 4 seconds and pb’d the runner.
but assuming it’s working as intended, that strain is one I only pick when hive core/hive has been destroyed and the hive needs eggs while it transitions elsewhere (assuming its a smart hive) That’s not to say eggsac can’t thrive on the front with the support of top tier praes and wars who know how to utilize your eggs it’s just more often better to have the option to make traps.
Personally I think they should kind of combine the base carrier and eggsac since it’s use is far too niche and often not needed in most rounds and by most rounds I mean literally 99%of rounds no one will notice the absence of an eggsac carrier.
This is an acid goop post, right? Isn’t the point of carriers some form of master strategists laughing at the dumb marines?
If a marine charging you why haven’t they got hugged by the traps you set behind your path?
If you choose to play carrier you should know better than charging alongside the faster castes like t1 or lurks. You choose a caste not well known to be a brute and now say it’s not good as a brute and it needs buffs to be a brute.
Kind of a goopy response though, whats your carrier playtime? Because I always have a backup plan and don’t personally throw myself into disadvantageous situations so those are random accusations.
Also traps can’t be side by side to eachother, I’ve been rushed down by robusto’s who just dodge and weave through any items on the ground knowing fully well a trap only springs if they go directly on it or they take a milisecond to fire 1 bullet at items in their path and kill the hugger. It’s not hard to do and these days marines expect it when a carrier is spotted or in most cases even, not spotted.
If you think these suggestions I’ve made make carrier a “brute” thats a bold claim for a small bit of armor and to make the throw hugger ability have some form of useful utility. Maybe carrier shouldn’t be a heavy weight at all then based on this response and have the speed of a drone. You know, since it’s not a “brute”
Carrier isnt a fun caste overall, you don’t have any AOE skills apart from dying. No skills to use in combat, you don’t have any other ability other than ambush. You’re also super squishy so you can’t even PvP. I mean, a drone can litterally outperform carriers, tackling, building, facehugger carrying. You only have 1 unique skill which is storing facehuggers. But when paired up with Queen that’s where it’s starts to get even less fun for the marines. You get screeched and a carrier comes up and hugs you. GG round cause Queen neuro spits anyone who comes close.
Your “points” was what made me have to wonder about your carrier playtime. That if you think a base armor of 10 and a simple utility boost to throw hugger would make carrier a “brute” who can just fly into groups of marines lol. I’d imagine it’s not very high. Considering the only thing my armor suggestion would really accomplish is allow carrier to take maybe 1 or 2 extra bullets. I’m not requesting they be turned into a tank with a tail sweeping ability and aoe attacks.
@Pablo_Excavator I’ve probably died more often trying to take advantage of queen scree than any other way. It’s definitely huge we can run up and hug a scree’d marine but its less effective than a runner just grabbing them and running away with it. You are now in harms way for any off screen marines that come charging in. If you want to scree cap, be a runner and it will contribute more than carrier. And I agree with your point that carrier is just a less deadly drone when it comes to fighting which kind of makes no sense.
Fun fact, having only 10 armor does almost nothing since most ammo has an AP value of 5 or 10. At best you get a 10% damage reduction to bullets, and at worst you get nothing (You would take an extra 2 shots from an M41A to go into crit).
Ok so this isn’t acid goop. Let’s me be clear about my points.
You choose to be a carrier. A carrier, a caste that is bad without a partner(s) or in frontline, is a good caste for creating memes for the ghosts seeing scout or some clueless marines walked into traps. A caste that is a spawning point for ghosts who want to metagame as huggers. You choose it, knowing it weaknesses, and want to fix it weaknesses with buffs instead of find “workarounds”
Your reason for buffing it, as I can see, because you lost to “robusto” in clutch moments (1 or 2 bullets).
Please don’t bring up playtime or I’ll have to make a thread malding on why RO can’t hoard all the good stuffs and deploy as Rambo.
As my point of a brute, yes I phrased it poorly so I lost.
Iirc your points was implemented early but got nerfed so… yea.
I think the abbreviation for “good game” is banned word so glhf.
Edit: thanks the above for pointing out how does armor works, I still have no clue after… idk how many hours I sunk into CM.
Edit edit: please don’t @me since I’m a moron playing a 3d spess game and don’t think too hard on it.
I think this is a much more fair response, but to put armor into perspective, burrower has 25 armor and still gets completely melted. My suggestion is small and just to give carrier a bit of flavor in the realm of some survivability. Maybe able to eat a couple extra bullets while it finishes applying a hugger to a knocked down marine. Due to its size it wouldn’t be entirely outlandish to see how a bit of armor could make sense. (Even spitters get 15 i believe)
These suggestions would not cure any of the carriers weaknesses in the end unless you consider the “throw hugger” ability being essentially completely useless a weakness. I would like that changed and my suggested change would not be game shattering. Carrier would still lose any 1v1 in the open vs a marine (unless the throw hugger ability lands right on a tile as the marine steps on it) with my suggestions. This would add a new layer of carriers trapping abilities and give them a bit of flavor on the battlefield to be a more active capper
Last time I checked carriers were a support caste, not a direct fighter.
No, marines aren’t getting smarter at avoiding carrier tricks, they are just as brainless as they were 5 years ago.
That would just fizzle into spamming huggers into group of marines resulting in just being annoying. If anything, carrier should get something akin to a hugger grenade that shows how much time is left before it can pounce (hugger unpacking from sort of a “ball”) and that activation period lasting 4 seconds, or so, forcing marines to shoot it ASAP, but not something impossible to react, because carrier stood behind a resin door and opened it just as the “cast time” ends.
Yet another big caste with armor. Why can’t it be unique by giving carrier more HP instead? AP should be sort of a trade-off instead of being just straight up better against everything. No, carrier doesn’t need armor, if he needs a strain to have a frontline role, then he needs more HP.
Exactly 0 hours as carrier. But 500 as marine since this thingy even started to count your playtime. Not every caste needs to be frontline, there could be a strain for that if anything.
Easly abusable mechanics you propose aren’t “minor”, but you lack experience, or imagination how such changes could be abused.
As with aforementioned change to throwing hugger, just stand behind a resin door, see marines approaching, start casting hugger, open the door just as your cast time is over, primed hugger lands next to a marine and huggs it. Literally 0 counterplay besides shooting every single resin door and wall from 7 tiles, even with whole marine squad there is guaranteed cap every 20-30 seconds, because of “minor” change.
I would be perfectly fine with Carrier getting more hp or armor. Essentially it would have the same impact of being able to take some more damage. However I would love if the layers of huggers on the carrier added extra armor just because that’d be a cool unique thing to carrier.
I also see your concern with the door akin to boiler gas. An easy fix for this is just to make it so carrier can’t open the door while charging it’s ability. (similar to how crusher can’t do it while charging up their charge ability) I don’t entirely dislike your “Hugger grenade” or if the hugger even primes in 2-4 seconds after being thrown every time. I just want this ability to have some sort of practical use.
Oh but also @Cabal You are incorrect on marines being dumb.More and more often I come into rounds where near every marine on the frontline is entirely aware of traps. Rendering the main point of my caste almost useless.
Nothing unique, hedgehog rav has already this mechanic, but with shards instead of huggers and it makes more sense, why carrier gets armor by attaching more squishy and armorless huggers to himself?
An easy fix not mentioned before to a “minor” change that will grow into proportions (potentialy).
Still broken, because buffed HP/Armor carrier can just stand in one spot, look for marine lights, start casting and always get guaranteed facehugg with no counterplay, but without a cap, thus only being annoying by sending a marine each half a minute back to ship for surgery.
Any way to just make active hugger appear without a counter is bad. Marines can’t do shit to prevent getting hugged when carrier starts casting other than to shoot it dead, or shoot it enough to force it to flee, but they can’t do neither when carrier starts doing it offscreen. This is a very bad mechanic that should never be even considered, even Queen doesn’t have tools to guarantee a cap on her own against infinite ammount of marines.
Highly unlikely, they FF eachother just as much as ever. What you likely are experiencing is veteran players, especially now since DDOS prevents newbies from accessing the game. They are the clueless masses stumbling into your traps and veteran marines are those who avoid and break them.
The main point of carrier isn’t to make hugger traps. Carrier still is the biggest supplier of facehuggers in the entire hive, otherwise xenos have to drag every single marine to planted eggs, prolonging the time it takes for marine to burst and increasing chance of reverse chestbursting, or suicide.
You just have to get more creative than to rely on putting traps under the same garbage.
Exactly how long do you think a carrier with 10 extra armor is going to stand in the open while marines fire at it? lol why do people try to blow any small buff suggestion so far out of proportion as if it that supports their concerns?
I can see that without experience playing carrier you have lack of perspective on how these changes would be beneficial for the caste in a good and healthy way. Although maybe an instant primed hugger from the throw could be abusable under the right circumstances a hugger that primes quickly is not a bad suggestion as I’ve said.
I can see how a marine main who spends half the game shooting at things with alot of armor and HP likes Ravs and crushers and the queen is terrified at the idea of anything else getting any amount of armor. But just because those Castes are insanely durable and useful does not mean every other caste has to be squishy and defenseless (I.E. Carriers current state) Although my suggestions would hardly change that.
Also you say to “get more creative.” Ok how? The same junk is in the spots every time. This is a very limited Caste. Sometimes sure you can push a box and break it somewhere and use the wood it drops but thats only on some maps and very limited.
Also the hive RARELY ever depends on a carrier for front line capping. The hive instead depends on runners or nearby egg morphers. They don’t need to run to the hive just because a carrier is absent.
Again I can see how from a purely marine bias standpoint you don’t want to see any positive updates for carriers or xenos in general probably. But Try playing it for a few days and let me know if you still think it is in a good spot. Even if you had 40 armor on this caste i guarantee you a lone marine will still gun you down out in the open with relative ease. So saying adding 10 armor or letting huggers add armor is just this game shattering change that will let carriers use the suggested throw ability with impunity is not the vibe.
I would like to know how giving carriers, a heavy weight, slow and massive caste 10 armor will shatter the foundations of cms13 to the point of no return. A realistic response
