RE : A New Xenomorph Caste we can call Hopper

Development Ideaguys
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A new xenomorph caste :

The lone alien, Big Chungus(trademark) specifically, was a jack of all trades type alien. Sure the drone can fulfill a lot of important tasks including the one seen in movies : capturing hosts. However I would like to think this is short sighted or at the very least not fully realized. A well put together break down of my idea for a new xenomorph caste was broken down by the eviliest sister of mine:

Kozmos

Evil Fisherman Kozmos

speech_balloon

HP 450
Plasma 300
Armor 20
Slash 30

so this is basically vampire lurker

Abilities : can carry two eggs or two huggers

carrier lite

can not spread weeds but can construct special hive structures(hive clusters, morphers, etc.)

kinda meh

Is slightly slower than runner

basically acider speed?

a nerfed pounce that only jumps 3 tiles

runner lite

drone pheromones

powercreep

idk how i feel about this

While this is a simple break down I would like to expand on these four core abilities I think would be necessary, if not game changing for a young hive waiting for Queen maturity.

Tuning the xenomorph caste “Hopper” down:

So until further revisions the caste is now called “Hopper” to give it a distinctly different look to other speed based caste such as Runner or Lurker. It will be paired with the new ability it takes it name from “Hop”.

Hop

-3 tile leap

-3 second cooldown (potentially bring it down as low as 2 seconds)

-does not knock down however like the Knight leap it can not be blocked by anything but a wall or a barbed wire cade

A 3 tile leap with no slow down, accounting for the movement on cast in the direction of the movement when the ability is finished casting. The cooldown will be 3 seconds making it an outstanding escape ability for a desperate weak hive. You can’t kill the xenomorph unless you can catch the xenomorph and its basically a kangaroo so good luck.

This ability is crucial to an early xenomorph hive due to its high mobility, convenience, & making evolving into a Drone even more valuable.

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“Special Weed Construction”

Now that I have put some attention on this idea I think I finally realize what the Hoppers second ability will be able to place TEMPORARY resin nodes that last 5 or so minutes. Their second ability is gonna be :

Weak Resin Node

-unusual fast spreading resin node that only last 5 minutes before decaying.

-spreadings normal resin creep across ground that can be supporting by regular resin nodes

-spreads resin creep to a 5 x 5 area within 2 seconds of casting making it an exceptional fast at weeding

I feel this is essential to the early game when capturing survivors. Targeting fresh resin nodes that haven’t made any resin creep is the strat when fighting a bunch of Drones and T1 xenos. This would make targeting resin nodes incredibly less effective as they have already spread their resin creep within the 3 or 4 tiles a survivor, or marine, might cover to destroy a resin node.

This is an overseen gift from Queen Mother deemed “inferior” due to its lack to be invigorated to immortality by Queen Mother, however she has seen the horrors this gift can create.

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“Carrier Lite”

Upon further introspection of what the xenomorphs ACTUALLY need is not another Carrier. However they need something much eviler : A xenomorph that can safely carrier two hosts. The Hopper will have another unique ability called “Strap” :

Strap

-the xenomorph can STRAP a host to the inside of a pouch that Queen Mother gifted her

-Similar to a resin wall nest except you can UN-STRAP a host with a cast not an interaction making dropping similar to regurgitate

-this thick(C) resin pouch is the in-game reason why Hopper will be the second xenomorph with 30 armor

-Each host STRAPPED into the Hopper’s resin pouches will give a buff to their armor of 3 to 5 (testing needed) per host

Another ability that is paired with a justification for a high Armor value on a Tier 2 xenomorph. Armor is so essential that Tall Queen Mother (Marine Developers) removed Ancient Queens 65 armor. Removed Crushers 55 armor. Removed Defenders 40 Armor. Reduced all other xenomorphs with armor values to 25 or below. Its why the King has 45 Armor. Armor value is incredibly important and this makes capturing hosts as Hopper even more beneficial to the xenomorph in a TEMPORARY way, which is the main design quirk of this caste.

An evil ability. A grand ability. A gift of resin beyond comprehension and the security in risking your xenomorph exoskeleton to capture hosts. Praise Queen Mother.

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“Drone Lite”

Another criticism is Drone Pheromones. However I will double down on this essential ability for Hopper (testing required), it will have access to Pheromones comparable to a three Lesser Drones at least. Pheromones are lacking in the xenomorph hive most of the time even with many drones. However a hive with more than two drones is a rare blessing. Those two drones spread out across a front provide little necessary coverage of pheromones for any xenomorph hive. Power Creep this, Power Creep that. How about something new.

Fragrance

-A castable ability that spread pheromones to xenomorphs around the Hopper that provides all pheromones simultaneously for 5 to 10 seconds

-May need to be an AOE cast to balance how powerful this pheromone injection will be similar to Valkyrie

-It will have a cool down equal to time those pheromones are active, no longer than 3 or 4 seconds more than ability

-It will not be exactly 33%/33%/33% of a Drone regular Pheromone release, I would advise it be high in Warding & Frenzy while lacking in Recovery

Another temporary ability; needed buffer of the xenomorph hive. Making this caste even more essential to a hive short term. It helps reduce the “power creep” claims by jumping the shark and saying “its temporary”. I believe these are essential to moving the gameplay meta forward by adding niche & unique xenomorph castes.

Boilers gas bares no comparison to the heavy Fragrance of a Hopper. This gift from Queen Mother ensures her daughters are invigorated with all her gifts without having to pray to Queen Mother for them.

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“Basically a Vampire Lurker”

Now onto the nitty gritty data statistics of the xenomorph for all those to consider. After much consideration, we don’t need another slasher. We need another 2 to 5 tackle 40% to 50% tackle chance xenomorph capture class. That being said, we can do two things at once with this Time based Temporary, Hopper, Xenomorph caste. Give it a fighting chance while removing a xenomorphs key trait “Tail Stab”

Removing Tail Stab

Now before you smite me Queen Mother lets talk it out :

Health Pool : 400 to 500 (testing needed)

Armor : 30 (non-negotiable)

Plasma : 300 to 600 (testing needed)

Plasma Regen : Comparable to a Carrier or Burrower (kinda shite)

Slash : 20 to 30 (no tail stab)

Claw Strength : 2 (maybe 3 for RWalls)

Speed : Drone to Slightly Slower than a Lurker or Runner (testing needed)

While Hopper will still have a tail it will be too short for combat. Hopper will be the only tier 2 xenomorph you can not evolve into once the Queen has reached maturity. Leave your thoughts below and I want to get around to adding an image or two about how it should look (gonna go play Arc Raiders now).

Queen Mother did not make this sister for killing. However she can, she WILL proliferate the hive with her strong muscles and unique resin gifts.

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I’m going to be honest, I’m not sure if this is about one or two Xenos? It’d be nice if this was reformatted to read nicer.

Are these two different xenos proposed? I’m a little lost.

From what I understand, I think this is one Xeno and you’re addressing criticisms, in that case:

I don’t think the population of people who play Runner/Lurker and Carrier overlap, and I think it’ll be a tough world for a Runner-Carrier hybrid to not end up weak or OP but I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. It looks like it’d be either too slow to backline, or too fast and ends up capturing and round-ending Marines.

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I don’t know what you misunderstand I state that it was an idea I had previously. Then stated I was going to break down the idea which included addressing criticism. I’m unsure what else was unclear.

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So let’s me guess, you want a lurker with a way to bypass being also a drone and cheese weed spreading all over the places with the temp resin node follow up with a cluster. Sorry but a combat caste with half the support class capabilities needing 0 extra help to sustain is a protag syndrome idea.

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T2 with T3 hp and armor, t1 speed and better then t1 mobility that can weed and phero for itself and carry huggers (already way outstats preatorian) that has nothing to offer in terms of interesting gameplay at all. jeh no, thanks for the idea anyway

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I mean I presented the abilities first, the stats are totally negotiable. Marine mains? I thought this would create less negativity. It’s a counter play caste that can only be evolved into when the Queen is Immature. It’s meant to be niche.

I even state that it’s meant to mimic a similar strength as the protag alien so saying it’s protag syndrome is just…. Unnecessary? Yea that’s the point it’s suppose to be a hard carry type of xenomorph that can only be evolved into during a specific case, Queen immaturity.

Comprehension is a great skill; stating the obvious is just short sighted or unnecessary. Just a bunch of sassy replies like we are in a cafeteria. Erm did you. . . Erm even read the passage. :nerd_face:

For instance, it can not carry huggers.

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This sounds cool but hear me out. Bring back boxer.

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Abilities : can carry two eggs or two huggers

perhaps read what you write, you just vomited loads of nothing into the post

You are being quite dishonest with the goal of this post. I do not know what you expect to come out of this, you did not state why the thing should exist or how it would be good for the game. There is not issue with people not understanding you idea, right now it looks like you have no idea as you did not present one. Is it suppsoed to be for xenos to be rewarded for queens death with snowflake supercaste? Take Despoiler for example, the reason why I think it will be good caste is that it has standard t3 stats as a t3, has abilities unique to it, can cooperate with both acid and mele castes and benefits from support castes by being plasmahungry. On the contrary, what you propose caste with no abilities let alone abilities that can be work in combination, is “support” caste that does not need other supports but is also statwise better then any other caste and is “support” while being frontline caste ehhh why should this exist?

The ability to carry two hosts has nothing unique or good about it, either you grief the hive by loosing two captures for your +armor or… nothing benefital to the game, about as unique as being able to weed (who cares about some 5 min it can right away support itself to heal whereever a is second escape ability?) and ability to produce all pheros, again just getting rid of need for any real teamwork. what I am asking for is WHY SHOULD THIS EXIST, none can give you any positive feedback when there is nothing to give feedback at, I am giving feedback on the lack of stuff I can give feedback at

you did not give any reason why anyone should bother with working on this. already spend more time here then this post is worth. sorry but try to at least present your ideas next time. if you had some “well put together break down of my idea” post that, not whatever this is supposed to be

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Knight then I won’t have to explain to people how to read a post. :laughing:

@cuberound You actually didn’t read the post please delete this derail it adds nothing and I even stated I am not looking for negative criticism it’s unproductive. You didn’t even read that the unique ability it will have is the ability to carry two hosts at once…..

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This is the caste queens will banish because they don’t want the walking talking cluster to die and lose upwards to 4 hosts.

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