FROM A GAMEPLAY PERSPECTIVE: Fairly balanced
FROM A XENO PERSPECTIVE: Managable, although people slashing caps is annoying
FROM A MARINE PERSPECTIVE: Absolutely fucking infuriating.
So, how do we fix this?
Tackles success rate is now tied to a marines damage level, balanced in such a way where an undamaged marine is very difficult to cap, but one with multiple fracs and damage is easy to. Balance it around an amount of damage a t3 can do in a push.
Paincrit now happens earlier.
Slashing removes small amount of chems from whoevers slashed (To remove tramadol and force paincrit)
Hauling is now the “dead point”. When hauled, your downed like your nested, and get stabilizeing chems like your nested.
Downed marines, when slashed, have a higher chance of loseing limbs or breaking bones.
The idea here is to encourage xenos to injure marines before going for caps. Getting tackledrag capped at full hp sucks as marine, and I think this would heavily remove that.
OPTIONAL XENO BUFFS TO BALANCE THIS OUT:
Xenos can now hug dead marines. They wont burst if left dead, but if revived will require surgery (Optional)
If we are ever doing a “Capping is adjusted by marine damage” then xenoes need a good visual indicator that said marine is good to be capped. This was also brought up when people wanted Tackle to be influenced by how damage the marine was.
But problems are still “probably” going to arrive with a lot of overslashing, and the sweetspot for capping is either too hard to get to, or too easy to get to.
I’m gonna be real I think it just needs to be removed, and this is coming from a half and half xeno and marine player. I get that Xenos have had it rough lately but this mechanic is pretty insane, and if you’re not aware of it, just spectate BUT sometime and watch how many caps and permad he gets from open angles.
Lurker pounce drags are essentially just a significantly more powerful and less dangerous version of warrior pounces. The amount of ground you can drag a marine over in seconds when done properly is INSANE. If they get you behind a resin door they can almost always secure a cap. It happens so fast and is so effective marines are essentially never able to counter it unless they are literally standing there ready to go with a shotgun. You have about 1.5 seconds to react before they drag them off.
I get that it’s an interesting strat, and a unique use of lurker pounce, but this shit is craaaaaazy. Feels bad to get invis lurker pounced and immediately be dragged 8 tiles with no delay for an insta cap. They removed tackle pounces from warriors becuase of this stuff, but lurker can still do it 10x more effectively.
Sentinel is already almost useless, don’t do this shit to runner bros(unbiased prime runner opinion).
TBH, tho it’s already hard enough to get xenos to not kill humans who are fucking already tackled in a safe area, this would make it impossible.
When you get tackle dragged you get to skip larva queue…………………. Pretty nice if you ask me
Anyhow nerfing tackle drag would drastically reduce xeno winrates. Even a microscopic change would be devastating because the whole core gameplay loop is built around being able to drag marines to cap them. Might as well say, “getting shot is frustrating, we should get rid of guns”
For two, the goal here is NOT to get rid of tackle drag. its to make it feel less unfair for the marines. the goal is not to nerf xenos capping abilitys, but to shift how its done.
The only reason it’s frustrating for certain marines is they think they’re “dead” once they’re nested in the hive, when actually they’re dead once they get knocked down.
The way to make tackle dragging feel less unfair is to set up a preference for autoghosting once tackled by a runner lmfao.
In all seriousness, nerfing (and it is a nerf by the way, what you’re describing is a massive nerf) tackling would require gutting the core mechanics of what makes this game an ALIEN themed video game, which not only would be awful for the game in a multitude of ways, but would take an obscene amount of effort.
not countering ekss’ point above its pretty slimey sorry guys
tackle dragging itself is fine(imo) because once you get stunned(long enough), plus grabbed, plus brought to a secure location, youve been capped and frankly anything else after(struggling during hauling) is gravy and isnt needed
what CAUSES these stuns and how easy it can turn into you being dragged and tackled can be balanced individually, but tackle dragging itself is a core mechanic and frankly doesnt need to be changed
tl;dr: dont get tackled to begin with
edit: also theres so much shit in the game that feels unfun that as this point its not even worth caring
I love how people say: “Tackle dragging is so easy!”
Yet 80% of the rounds xenos don’t do it.
Why? Because they are stupid.
When you get a good xeno team, they do it and most of the times it’s only runners. Other castes get insta melted/are too slow. Runner tackle is somewhat consistent too.
In truth, Tackle dragging punishes marines for just standing around and not rushing the queen or making cades. If marines are in cades, xenos can’t tackle drag. If marines push after a screech, they can’t tackle drag.
If marines just fumble around doing nothing in the open they will get tackle dragged.
Outside the Queen screech, Tackle dragging is almost impossible, even moreso with the no tunneling with a cap bullshit.
The only times that you will see xenos capping marines without queen are the following 3.
marines steps on a trap → dragged to brazil.
Marine gets comboed by at least 3 xenos such as vanguard/warrior and thrown to their lines → dragged to brazil.
Stars align and somehow TKO can solo cap a lone marine/a lurker stuns a marine and a runner can tackle drag a marine away from others before → dragged to brazil.
I feel like lurkers being the caste to jump exposed marines and drag them off to the hive is like…a very lore accurate way for xenomorphs to get caps.
In most media iterations, how exactly are xenomorphs meant to raise their numbers against an armed and organized force? picking off individuals
I just had a situation where I left the fob immediately after landing, got jumped by a runner, stun locked, and dragged all the way across the map, THROUGH THE ENTIRE HUMAN ARMY so fast I couldn’t even call for help, not to mention get it.
Runners are only a little larger than humans, and are mostly quadruped. There is no way they would be in complete control of a 250lb angry marine while running 200 miles an hour using half of their limbs (assuming they are grabbing onto the marine with the other two). Gameplay wise, being completely locked out of my controls for an entire encounter and go from 100% health to perma dead is simply cancer. Its not a good gameplay mechanic, and it ruins a players gameplay session.
You get a handful of shots on an enemy that is moving so fast the game cant really render it properly so you barely hit, then some BS excuse for resistance with a knife that doesn’t even attack most of the time, and the runner can just drop you (still stun locked) knock it out of your hand (still stun locked) be able to pick you up (still stun locked) without so much as a chance to do anything. You then get dragged from one corner of the map to the other in 15-20 seconds and there goes your 30 minutes of deployment without you being able to press a single button. It needs to be fixed.
I wouldn’t touch the engagement mechanics, but once the runner gets a hold of a prone marine, things change.
30% speed while dragging/carrying a body. Allow the marines allies to get a chance to do something.
Marine can resist to cause a chance to stun the runner, and occasional cause it to drop you while being dragged or carried. Maybe make the knife increase the chances or do automatic damage while resisting. No need to do the barely functional clicking knife stabs. The marine shouldn’t act like a kitten being dragged off by the back of the neck.
Lower the marine time to get up from a fall from being grabbed. if you drop me, I deserve a chance to do something.
The runner might get the pounce and the initial grab, but then the opposite player should an actual say in the matter. I’m down for anything that makes the runners less of a disaster to play against, but I feel the solution should be on the marine side. Give marine players more options when being jumped so there is a very possible chance that they can defend themselves.
Nah. It needs to be simple and fair. Dragged marine can focus on this QTE, while xeno has to move in a favourable direction, be aware of its surroundings and also QTE.
At best marine should be able to decide if they want to use it (the bootknife idea), or not (because he is sure that he won’t be dragged away and he doesn’t want to waste his bootknife).
Nah. I get the idea to make it less infruriating via gameplay changes.
But its punishment for fucking up. If you get capped, its generally your own fault.
9/10 its because you got over confident.
Making it less punishing for the sake of it, simply makes it less rewarding for marines to learn to avoid it and less rewarding for xenos to become good at it.
You can preserve all of that by simply only extending the time it takes to do it, but not drasticly reduce the chance for that to happen in absence of teammates. Which bootknife idea passes (in theory) with flying colors.