Had that idea a while ago and forgot. got reminded about it again from another post about a carrer strain. If a second strain for the carrier is added i would be nice to have it thematicly fit the others. So why not theme the strains of the carrier around the life cycel of xenos?
Eggsac: Eggs
Base: Hugger
Surrogate: Larva
Basicly a form of the carrier that is focusing on the last part of a huggers, and first part of a xenos life. The growth and maturation of larva.
Potential Abilitys:
Mobile Nest
They would be abel to nest about 3 infected hosts on there own body. Not being abel to remove them once attached. Only way to get hosts off again, is either by death of host or the Surrogate.
Basicly turning them into a mobile nest. Cant have the Surrogate nests better then normal nests though. Otherwise it turns into “Need to get surrrogate to max host speed.” The main advantage comes from the second uniqe ability.
(Maybe an incubation boost on hosts nested on the Surrogate. Like a 1.25x multipler. Migth be rigth, migth be bad, but i dont got the experince to really say.)
Larva Carrier (Trypophobia part)
The Surrogate would gain the ability to carry larva much like the base Carrier, in heir carapece on their back that now contains a lot of holes for the larva to slip into.
The Surrogate can manually swallow Larva like she would a host.
Larva could enter the Surrogate on their own.
Larva inside the Surrogate would recive a 100% maturation boost (doubels the maturation time).
Larvas can exit the surrogate at will, and the Surrogate can trow them out at will.
She could carry 7 larvas (number is arbetrarry, can be changed any time) at max.
Larva that bursted from hosts nested on the Surrogate Automaticly enter her.
To visually indicate the Surrogate has larvas inside her, i say basicly give her a bigger tann back. Add a bunch of holes. And for every larva inside her one hole gets an orange dot. Larva orange best, maybe brigther.
This is the crux of the strain. Giving her the ability to give larva near the front a safe place, and also giving them a reason to stay in her and not run to the hive. If its safe to do so. It also allows her to safe noodels or noodles to flee to safety in her. Also this gives her the ability to mass transport larva with the tunnel.
Resin Spit
Fires a ball of quick hardening resin that sticks to a marine and does diffrent things depending on wich limb you aim at.
If you hit their legs/feet it would slow the player as much as max sentinal spit stacks would.
If the marines head/eyes/mouth is hit the player will be blinded.
If you hit their arms/hands it will force the player to drop what they are currently holding in the targeted limb. Rending the hand unusabel .
The resin would break apart after 10 seconds on its own, completly being romeved from the marine. It can also be removed quickly when using a knife as if removing shrapnel. Either by yourself or other players, like shrapnel.
The cooldown would be 20 second, and the cast time 2 second with movement lock akin to the boiler.
This is very strong i know, but this has the important role of being so good that its waste to stay in the hive. If the Surrogate doesnt have something like that, the other parts wont work. Staying at the hive as brood chamber needs to be avoided at all costs.
Resting Aura Passive or Strong pheros
The strain would gain a passive where it emmits a healing aura exactly like the recovery node while its resting.
A xeno resting in a 3x3 radius around the resting Surrogate, would be healed just like with the resting node. Only one Xeno at a time can be healed by it, like the resting node.
The passive those not increase the healing for the Surrogate herlsef.
This is very basicly, a support ability for this strain. Yes, it needs an active role in combat, but Carrier is at the end of the day a support cast. Making it so that you have a viabel option to not engage combat and support, and still positivly contribute to the match, is important.
Although i can see why this migth be overpowerd. This is just an add if the Surrogate needs more to be a viabel option. I could honestly see this to fit more on the Eggsac strain.
So if this is too much, Just give the Surrogate Strong Pheros. Would give a similar insetive. Pick your favorite.
I dont say add everything to it. Im just trowing everything against the wall, to see what sticks best.
Thats it basicly. I had that idea for a while now and i really wanted to share my brain goop.
It has some obious problems, like that i dont know how to make it so the strain is rewarded to stay at the front and not chill at the hive as an incubation chamber. I dont know if the ability to nest hosts on them is already enough, but i feel like it very much is not. I dont know.
Front insetive to prevent staying at hive and boring gameplay:
(Notes and flimsy edits)
- Strain be tankier:
Increased armor to 15-20(yes, very tanky. Girl carring larva around and keeps shit damage) Lore reason: she grown a big hard shell on her back that contains the larva holes. Basicly holes in her hardend carapace.