In-lore, xenomorphs are portrayed as extremely intelligent, rapidly evolving and adaptable organisms. Ravagers for example were evolved as a consequence of continuous exposure to hosts with heavy firepower and armaments. I feel like the opposite is currently true in game. Once you get to learn existing castes, xenos aren’t particularly scary. They’re a predictable, known enemy with very static mechanics and stale content. This idea stems towards making xenos more adaptable, as well as increasing auxillary team support for the xeno faction. And, maybe even making burrower less bumass useless in the process.
Burrower strain idea: Mole. The Mole takes inspiration from auxillary support roles on the human faction, such as research, OT, and IOs. The Mole’s gameplay loop will consist of:
Staging
Intelligence gathering
Intelligence application
There can be up to two moles in a game. While the burrower is a T2, any strain evolution to Mole will occupy a T3 slot of the Hive.
The mole will exist on a separate Z level below the map. This level is inaccessible to other xenos or marines. Moles will begin in a “den”, a hollowed out area beneath the hivecore. Everything around them on the Z level is solid rock. They must move in a direction to break/tunnel through the rock. It takes 0.7 seconds for the mole to break a tile. The mole is responsible for creating a tunnel network that overlays beneath the actual groundmap. They will use this network to traverse the map and observe marines. It might resemble something like minecraft strip mining. This will be the staging phase.
Next is intelligence gathering. The mole is the hive’s thinker, there to assess and adequately respond to threats. They will be able to observe the Z level above them. For any given marine they can be presented with a prompt by clicking on them. The prompt will allow them to enter or select any number of items the marine possesses, from weapons, to clothes, armor, accessories, belts, attachments, etc. The mole can also guess at any given marines’ role, such as SL, rifleman, CT, medic, etc.
For any single marine the mole can enter one guess prompt every 90 seconds. For every correct item they identify in the prompt they get a certain number of points (tbd). Once an item is identified it cannot be re-entered in a future prompt. Observing xenomorph deaths, xeno bodies, or CAS, mortar and OB firemissions can also accrue a small amount of points.
Finally intelligence application. The mole will use points accrued from their intel gathering to unlock research pathways/”technologies” for xenos. Different paths will require the mole player to solve varying puzzles or beat minigames, such as minesweeper, sudoku, chess or bloonsTD for example. Upon successful completion of a game or puzzle, progress will be made towards technologies available to xeno castes. Some ideas include:
- Some of the same boons that can be obtained through comm tower pylons, this would just provide an alternative means of acquiring them. Things like evolution, transmutation, fire resistance, etc.
- Abilities that can be caste-specific or generalized across the hive, to increase armor, speed, or slash damage. (Potentially utilizing that hybrid xeno making tool that was merged a while back for custom mobs)
- Enhanced vision. Further zoom for select or all castes to allow them to see further. Particularly useful for boilers.
- Localized pheromones. An ability that would grant any or all xenomorph castes to emit pheromones to adequately respond to the increasing identification of marine threats.
- Localized weeding. Allows any or all non-weeding castes to place a single node of hardy weed every two minutes.
- Advanced acid spray - Acid spray similar to that of base boiler, but available to all castes, including non-aciders. The Mole must continuously solve puzzles of increasing difficulty to synthesize more of this special acid. They must also erect pyres that extend to the groundmap Z level, where xenomorphs can “fill up” on the acid. For each puzzle, 9 acid sprays are granted. The Mole loads these into the pyre, from which any individual xenomorph on the ground level can acquire up to 5 uses at a time. Each spray has a 10 second cooldown. Upon contact, the marine is covered in it, and must roll or be extinguished. The acid inflicts the same penetration and damage as white OB fire, and also degrades armor or anything in the marine’s hands when he comes into contact with it. (inspired by white fire)
- Advanced traps - resin holes that can be planted off weeds, used for either hugger or acid traps. Evolutions branching from this could be:
- Advanced acid traps - similar to current acid traps, but the radius is increased to a circular formation 2 tiles in each direction from origin. The advanced acid trap will also instantly gib any marine caught in its blast radius, and melt all of their gear. (inspired by OT claymores)
- Advanced hugger traps - Upon being hugged by one of these traps, the marine is instantly transported to the Mole’s Z level. From there the Mole receives a notification and direction, which they must tunnel to to retrieve the cap before they come to. If the marine wakes up before the Mole can get to them, either from a lack of adequate tunnel networks, or if the player is caught in the middle of other duties such as a sudoku puzzle, the marine can claw their way back to the normal Z level. If the Mole retrieves them, they can be nested in the den beneath the hivecore. Everyone already complains that hugger traps are a guaranteed round removal even though they aren’t may as well take one step closer to actually making that a reality! (inspired by OT claymores but still somehow more fair?)
- Cultists - If caps are obtained this way, the Mole may choose to research the cultist branch, offering the captured marine’s life be spared in exchange for cooperation with the hive. If the marine refuses, this may play out through a series of chess games where the marine attempts to beat the Mole player in order to maintain their resolve, sanity and loyalty. If they lose, their identity begins to wither away. In this event, the larva within them would be withered away, but the marine would become a cultist, and consequently an antag to the marine faction (inspired by greenos)
Late game options:
- Marauder pods. Pods that can carry one or two xenomorphs, fired at the Alamayer. Can be repelled by AA. Provides xenos with a means of hivediving the metalhive.
- AA boiler. An NPC entity that fires globs at dropships. CAS pilots will need to actively dodge these globs.
- Advanced AA boiler. The OG that fires on the Alamayer itself.
- King
In essence, this is a caste that is physically removed from the game. Marines and xenos alike can almost never interact with it. It is almost entirely removed from the standard game loop and adds little substance, but based on any individual player’s particular competency at accomplishing mundane tasks or solving arbitrary problems and minigames, the role can either tank a hive’s T3 slots, or singlehandedly offer one of the two major factions disgustingly obscene, ridiculously overpowerd, fundamentally balance-altering mechanics with little to no counterplay. A role such as this serves to:
- Add depth to the game
- Make xenos scarier and more unpredictable, as they should be
- Enhance teamwork and reliance on auxillary support roles
- Make burrower useful again
- Make gameplay more dynamic overall
- Potentially motivate more shipside marine players to play xeno
- Provide an avenue for buffing some of the other obscene roles in the game that have the same impacts as Mole would. Everybody wins!