Fade Stab [Low Priority]

loMe
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8 September 2015 - 17:02 CEST
#31
Changed the topic title to Low Priority because I mainly just wanted to generate some ideas. I don't think we'll have time to implement anything with Stab before the start of the season anyways. But as to some of the discussion I've read here:

-Stab was only effective with a skill like teleporting Vortex. Without Vortex, Stab has become obsolete. However, I don't think we should need to bring back Vortex to make Stab effective. In any case, you shouldn't need one skill to make another skill viable.

-Some people seem to be saying "Fades don't need a 3rd hive ability since all the other lifeforms already have strong 3rd hive abilities." It's kind of a slap in the face to people that play Fade's as their main lifeforms. While yes, we shouldn't change something just to change it, you are making it sound like we shouldn't even consider any ideas for an alternative to Stab. While every other lifeforms scales better with a 3rd hive, Fades essentially have a broken/useless 3rd hive ability. Are we just saying "tough shit?" Coming up with a practical skill for Fades shouldn't be looked at as so offsetting for balance. Researching one skill over another skill on a third hive will always have opportunity cost. If you go with a 3rd tier Fade upgrade that means your forgoing the utility of another 3rd hive ability. Right now, there isn't a viable 3rd tier upgrade for Fades so let's think of something that would be practical.
maxamus
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8 September 2015 - 17:37 CEST
#32
Give Fades Nukes. Everyone Wins.
BauerJankins
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8 September 2015 - 18:05 CEST
#33
loMe says
-Some people seem to be saying "Fades don't need a 3rd hive ability since all the other lifeforms already have strong 3rd hive abilities." It's kind of a slap in the face to people that play Fade's as their main lifeforms. While yes, we shouldn't change something just to change it, you are making it sound like we shouldn't even consider any ideas for an alternative to Stab. While every other lifeforms scales better with a 3rd hive, Fades essentially have a broken/useless 3rd hive ability. Are we just saying "tough shit?" Coming up with a practical skill for Fades shouldn't be looked at as so offsetting for balance. Researching one skill over another skill on a third hive will always have opportunity cost. If you go with a 3rd tier Fade upgrade that means your forgoing the utility of another 3rd hive ability. Right now, there isn't a viable 3rd tier upgrade for Fades so let's think of something that would be practical.


Fades*

You shouldn't be looking at fades as a lifeform you play yourself, you should look at them as part of the game. We shouldn't buff stab only because some FADEPLAYERS would like to have a viable third hive ability. I know that's not what you're trying to say, but I know it's what you'd like to have. If anyone has some balance ideas that just make it a tiny useful feature for fades, it's alright. But just making stab the NEW SWIPE with 160 damage (and a small cooldown which, tbh, wouldn't make much of a difference) is quite silly... and would not address any balance problems we currently have, at most create new ones
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8 September 2015 - 18:22 CEST
#34
Since my first post I've changed my opinion several times. And I still believe that stab should be removed. I don't see a way to make it viable.
Personally I don't think fades need to get a 3rd hive ability. But if you wanna argue for a 3rd hive ability. Then I would prefer the introduction of the old vortex over stab. Stab would just give improved DPS while the old vortex would give a strong 3rd hive ability in the aliens arsenal. And with the correct balance it wouldn't be too OP as the fade would give up a portion of it's energy that it otherwise could use to attack, dodge or flee.
Disclaimer: The old vortex was before my time. So I would like to hear the opinions of more experienced players on this matter.
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8 September 2015 - 19:04 CEST
#35
couldn't old vortex be used to temporarily disable buildings like IPs, obs or armslabs aswell (disabled armslab means no upgrades anymore for that amount of time) and you could use it faster than it was running of so you could permanently disable a building or so...

anyway with stab having an ability like swipe that can one-hit marines without armor... I think this would be too much. We could reduce the damage to 95 or something... or reduce it to 140 and give a really late game upgrade that increases marines base HP to 150... but this would need even further balancing so this isn't a good solution for just making stab viable
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8 September 2015 - 19:31 CEST
#36
Kash says
Wob says
I'm not inclined to change fade 3rd ability just to make it used more often. It needs to be a fix/counter to something.


Then i'm going to have to agree with aimee... why not just remove it then?


Because removing it is also a "change for the sake of change"...

Just leave it. What does it hurt if it stays and what does it fix if you change it? There is absolutely nothing wrong with doing nothing.

You're subjecting yourself to commissioning bias where one feels the need to be active and do something when sometimes the best option is to do nothing.
Kash
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9 September 2015 - 00:38 CEST
#37
I've explained my end of the debate numerous times in numerous ways... I say all of this as someone who cannot play fade at all, and I have no interest in playing fade. Outside of the hive I like Lerking/Gorging.

I can see the point that a 160 damage swipe with cooldown would be a bit OP, so yeah, lets not do that... counter proposal:

-remove hiss
-allow blink to be used while stab is charging

This would mean that you still need to time your stabs so it takes skill to use, but takes away peoples biggest complaint of leaving yourself ridiculously exposed while charging it up.

"Out with the gorge, into the ready room" F4 - iSay
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9 September 2015 - 01:38 CEST
#38
This is a more reasonable approach. But I still have to disagree with that, simply because of what I have already said. A viable stab would just be too strong, even if risky to use. You can easily 1v1 marines with that (after you got their armor down) and that's not supposed to be. I'd say only removing the hiss, if it's not a lot of work (it's a rather unnecessary change after all) would be enough right now, because, as I said, 3rd hive aliens are strong enough
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Kash
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9 September 2015 - 03:00 CEST
#39
We have been discussing that exact topic in Slack today, but the fact is... IF the aliens actually manage to get 3 hives and fully tech up... they SHOULD be able to win 1 v 1... look at it this way.

If you have W3 + A3, JPs + HMGs/Shotguns... Lerks die VERY fast... Gorges do the same... Onos are taken down pretty easily... which makes fades the only real line of defense in that situation... if both marines and aliens are fully tech'ed up, aliens should have an advantage... to get to 3 hives + all upgrades, the aliens have to have done a LOT of good work both offensively and defensively.

Making it so that the most mobile lifeform doesn't lose all of its mobility during its high tech attack won't be groundbreaking, it won't be game breaking either... but imo, it is a welcome addition.
"Out with the gorge, into the ready room" F4 - iSay
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9 September 2015 - 09:22 CEST
#40
Kash says
We have been discussing that exact topic in Slack today, but the fact is... IF the aliens actually manage to get 3 hives and fully tech up... they SHOULD be able to win 1 v 1... look at it this way.


This isn't something that should happen but rather what you want to happen. Don't make your opinion sound like fact...

Kash says

If you have W3 + A3, JPs + HMGs/Shotguns... Lerks die VERY fast... Gorges do the same... Onos are taken down pretty easily... which makes fades the only real line of defense in that situation...

Sure if all those lifeforms beeline to the middle of a room and stand still maybe. You make way too many assumptions here to be able to conclude something like this. It would be interesting to see what people's thoughts on this are across the community.

Kash says

if both marines and aliens are fully tech'ed up, aliens should have an advantage... to get to 3 hives + all upgrades, the aliens have to have done a LOT of good work both offensively and defensively.


I mean if marines have all tech but so do aliens, the aliens by definition have more map control on every map except veil. So if aliens perform consistently at the current strength of 3rd hive abilities, they will more often than not win. You situation in the other quote assumes a pure PvP focus when in actuality a 3 hive game makes marines very vulnerable across the map for base pushes / res rape.

It sounds like you're saying aliens have a problem with finishing games despite the map control 3 hives gives (exception: veil).

Xeno: Massive splash for cheap chips into multiple marines negating armor 3 and soaking up 1 more medpack per marine

Ranged Spores: Denies strong positional area

Stomp: Kills all non-JPs of which more people will become JPs because they burn their pres.

Kash says

Making it so that the most mobile lifeform doesn't lose all of its mobility during its high tech attack won't be groundbreaking, it won't be game breaking either... but imo, it is a welcome addition.


Well it's kind of contributing to a "3rd hive wins" time bomb meta which is basically an artificial winning condition. Why shouldn't marines have that time-bomb effect with 3/3 JPs SGs?
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9 September 2015 - 12:35 CEST
#41
Kash says
We have been discussing that exact topic in Slack today, but the fact is... IF the aliens actually manage to get 3 hives and fully tech up... they SHOULD be able to win 1 v 1... look at it this way.

If you have W3 + A3, JPs + HMGs/Shotguns... Lerks die VERY fast... Gorges do the same... Onos are taken down pretty easily... which makes fades the only real line of defense in that situation... if both marines and aliens are fully tech'ed up, aliens should have an advantage... to get to 3 hives + all upgrades, the aliens have to have done a LOT of good work both offensively and defensively.


And if they still manage to LOSE the game they have to make A LOOOOOT of mistakes, so why would you change that? Aliens already HAVE the advantage I mentioned like 5 times now, can you please consider that when you keep posting in this thread? This is becoming rather annoying
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9 September 2015 - 16:30 CEST
#42
BauerJankins says
This is becoming rather annoying


Don't worry bud, I'm on the verge of just walking away and thinking fuck it... people are missing a very basic point regardless of how many way I try to write it...
"Out with the gorge, into the ready room" F4 - iSay
maxamus
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10 September 2015 - 10:29 CEST
#43
Thinking more on this, i do agree that giving fade an instant 160 damage with a cooldown could be to strong, with a lifefrom that is already strong enough, think how hard it can be to kill a fade, this would just make it so much harder to engage with fades and would create another fade "Explosion" another fade ball, we all remember how bad / hard the last time we had this? 5 fades super OP with shadowstep / bhop so fast, couldnt kill.


So Dont change something thats not broke for the sake of changing it. Either remove it, or keep it.

I say keep it as it is.
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10 September 2015 - 10:44 CEST
#44
maxamus says
Thinking more on this, i do agree that giving fade an instant 160 damage with a cooldown could be to strong, with a lifefrom that is already strong enough, think how hard it can be to kill a fade, this would just make it so much harder to engage with fades and would create another fade "Explosion" another fade ball, we all remember how bad / hard the last time we had this? 5 fades super OP with shadowstep / bhop so fast, couldnt kill.


So Dont change something thats not broke for the sake of changing it. Either remove it, or keep it.

I say keep it as it is.


1. why is it that people think that no other changes would be made to stab to balance it?... first you fix its functionality, the main reason people don't use it is due to the fact that it removes all maneuverability which its charging... making you VERY vulnerable... so lets fix that... make the fade capable of blinking while charging it up.

2. after making the functionality changes, you then reduce the damage... make it PvE as has been suggested... or make it do only armour damage...
i'm not 100% on the numbers because I haven't tested them... but the fade does a total of 75 damage with a swipe, a % of it is done to armour and the rest to health (thats the bit i'm not sure of) so how about make stab do 100% of its damage to armour only... no health damage... you start charging stab blink in, land the hit and it causes 75 armour damage... it will do less damage to structures (say 50 damage for now) which is less than a skulk/lerk etc, but more than the 22 it currently does. (as usual with me, the numbers are placeholders to give you the idea of what i'm trying to say) and you adjust the energy cost of stab so that it makes sense for the strength of the ability.
The point is the fades 3rd hive ability is currently unbalanced... the risk reward factors are huge... you sacrifice all movement for an OP hit... change that, balance it... or remove it totally (and that is NOT a change for the sake of change - see below)

3. IT ALREADY DOES 160 DAMAGE!!!! I cannot stress that enough... you can't say "leave it as it is" when it already does the damage you're complaining about.
"Out with the gorge, into the ready room" F4 - iSay
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10 September 2015 - 12:26 CEST
#45
the fades normal ability is, rightly so, pathetic to structures.
Stab is not. Its not great either, but it has not the pathetic damage the normal ability does.

Lower player damage, increase structure damage, and call it a nice anti structure ability?
Fade ball does not seem a issue to me, because it should rightly so take a while to get 3 hives up.


Im still again making to many (if any) changes to comp, which differ from vanilla. But im still willing to think with the ones who aint. :)
BauerJankins
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10 September 2015 - 13:48 CEST
#46
OK make stab strong and remove bilebomb, umbra and xenocide. We all ok with this?
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10 September 2015 - 14:03 CEST
#47
Kash says
3. IT ALREADY DOES 160 DAMAGE!!!! I cannot stress that enough... you can't say "leave it as it is" when it already does the damage you're complaining about.


Yes, but it has to be timed to hit, there for making it a choice for the player, "shall i charge this up, and do 160 damage, but at the same time, make myself weak" its the trade off for it,

My point being, is that stab is something no one uses as there is other far better to be used / researched.

What your suggesting would be something then to replace Stab, cause it would'nt be stab anymore, might as well increase fade damage if they hit the marine from the back, that sound good? better yet, Stab should = Instant kill for who ever gets hit with it. lets just fuck balance and break shit.
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10 September 2015 - 14:53 CEST
#48
Your comment made no sense to me, Bauer.
Kash
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10 September 2015 - 15:07 CEST
#49
maxamus says
Kash says
3. IT ALREADY DOES 160 DAMAGE!!!! I cannot stress that enough... you can't say "leave it as it is" when it already does the damage you're complaining about.


Yes, but it has to be timed to hit, there for making it a choice for the player, "shall i charge this up, and do 160 damage, but at the same time, make myself weak" its the trade off for it,

My point being, is that stab is something no one uses as there is other far better to be used / researched.

What your suggesting would be something then to replace Stab, cause it would'nt be stab anymore, might as well increase fade damage if they hit the marine from the back, that sound good? better yet, Stab should = Instant kill for who ever gets hit with it. lets just fuck balance and break shit.


No, what i'm suggesting is that rather than having an unused, pointless upgrade for fades, we show them a LITTLE love and make it so that you can blink with stab... but people don't like that idea because "meh" so suddenly a fuckton of other things have to be changed...

Removing the hiss and allowing blink while charging stab is NOT going to break the game, its not going to change much, if anything... it just means that the fade third hive ability may actually be used once in a while... because the frequency of a 3rd hive is already pretty low (as a few people have already pointed out) and the likelihood of it being researched is still pretty low, its down to the comm to prioritize stab over stomp/xeno/spores based on his team and the situation, add that to the fact that a hive can be taken down while its researching/hive killed removes the ability to use stab etc etc... its NOT game breaking, its NOT unbalanced... being able to time your stab charge up and actually land the ability will take skill in the first place.

once those changes were tested, IF (and thats a BIG IF) it turns out that tweaking stab made it too OP, the damage can easily be nerfed/altered to change that... but in its current state its wasted coding.
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Kash
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10 September 2015 - 15:09 CEST
#50
DCDarkling says
Your comment made no sense to me, Bauer.


He was being sarcastic.
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10 September 2015 - 15:37 CEST
#51
I know Kash, but even with sarcasm, it wasnt making any sense.
It also fails to be good sarcasm. ^^
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10 September 2015 - 17:11 CEST
#52
Still about stab?

Ok, lets say it like this... If you HAVE 3 hives, usually that means you've got a quite good game, and by that i mean you are propably snowballing the marine team. And by this time you somewhere about biomass 8-9 and infestation trough the whole map being spammed.

And propably 2-3 fades out in the field with 1 lerk and a Onos?

And marines are far set back and just got HGM or something like that. A2 and W3 at most.

So we are still discussing about getting the Stab even more OP? Lets say maybe we dont have a lerk, and skulks comes with Xenocide. And the Fades come in, So basicly we got 3 fades who 1 shot 1 marine each. Thats 3 marines dead within a blink of an eye.. + dont forget Stomp from the onos.. gonna be FUN!

No please, you either remove this ability or nerf it, not the other way around -.-
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10 September 2015 - 17:37 CEST
#53
You know you can blink, bhop, and charge stab?
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10 September 2015 - 17:47 CEST
#54
Wob says
You know you can blink, bhop, and charge stab?


Nope, because in TAW, we are so good that we always end the game before hive numero 3 :) + i never fade xD

But that seems like... enuff? And people still want to buff it? holy jesus.. why not add wallhack while we are at it?
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10 September 2015 - 21:57 CEST
#55
but in its current state its wasted coding.

Every debate about this topic is wasted time, because this is about buffing the aliens at their strongest point in the game - this does not make sense, in any way at all. If you want to buff aliens on 3 hives, you have to take something away from them. This would end in a chain of unnecessary changes, only because some people want to use stab???
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11 September 2015 - 19:04 CEST
#56
You don't need to nerf aliens at three hives. Aliens with three hives should win the game short of some truly .amazing individual play by all 5 marines culminating together.

They should have prevented the third hive.

Acid rocket is perfect for closing a game you should win. If we remove anything at all it should be contaminate. As it is now it can be really easy for a fade to die because of the stupid final turtle breaking necessity. Acid rocket + spores WILL break turtles, forcing marines to be proactive instead of passively making the game last an extra 20 minutes and then usually still losing anyway.

If you don't like it then the solution to giving fades acid rocket isn't to nerf aliens, it's to buff marines somehow that doesn't encourage ridiculously boring defensive play.

And people wonder why not enough people wanted to watch this game in competitive..
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20 September 2015 - 03:40 CEST
#57
Alternative to stab could be an ability to upgrade the weapon type of swipe from light to normal. This would not buff fades vs players. But would allow to actually do structure damage.
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20 September 2015 - 12:55 CEST
#58
Aimee says
Alternative to stab could be an ability to upgrade the weapon type of swipe from light to normal. This would not buff fades vs players. But would allow to actually do structure damage.


aaaaand we're back to fade balling.
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maxamus
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21 September 2015 - 13:18 CEST
#59
Kash says
Aimee says
Alternative to stab could be an ability to upgrade the weapon type of swipe from light to normal. This would not buff fades vs players. But would allow to actually do structure damage.


aaaaand we're back to fade balling.



Yes. Make it so.

Aint no party like a fade ball party. Put your claws in the air! Swing and miss like you just dont care!
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23 September 2015 - 23:45 CEST
#60
maxamus says
Kash says
Aimee says
Alternative to stab could be an ability to upgrade the weapon type of swipe from light to normal. This would not buff fades vs players. But would allow to actually do structure damage.


aaaaand we're back to fade balling.



Yes. Make it so.

Aint no party like a fade ball party. Put your claws in the air! Swing and miss like you just dont care!


Could we have Nights make another cover on that?
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