Remove devouring and allow Xenos to drag into tunnels/vents

[Edgelord]

Summary (a quick, 2-3 sentence summary): Remove the ability of the Xenos to devour humans/mobs and instead allow them to drag things with them through tunnels.

Benefits (How this will benefit the server and game as a whole): In addition to removing the lore-unfriendly concept of aliens transporting their prey by devouring them, Aliens wouldn't have to worry about damaging their prey by transporting them. Besides, when I think of a xenomorph ambush I always think of aliens popping out of vents and dragging the marines away.

Details (Description of how you think this would work, the benefits, etc): It would work much like the ladders on the Sulaco, where whatever you were dragging gets pulled with you. The caveat to this, however, would be that it takes longer to use the tunnel/vent if you are dragging someone than if you went through by yourself. The devour feature would be removed altogether. When a xenomorph begins to go into the tunnel the following type of message would be displayed for those present:

"Hunter(60) begins to pull John Doe into the tunnel!"

If it succeeds then you would see:

"Hunter(60) disappears into the tunnel with John Doe!"

Naturally, tunnel is interchangeable with vent in this scenario.

Implementation (Optional, if you have an idea how to implement it): Coding.

[monkeysfist101]

Combine this with a heavier grab and +1.

[Wickedtemp]

+1
Using devouring to transport a marine can be suicide at times. If they wake up inside the xeno, the xeno has a grand total of one second before they get gibbed, meanwhile the marine player is likely already spamming their keyboard and mouse.

On such a large map, transporting marines can be a god damned pain. You NEED a runner with you or else the marine could just run away and escape, and a sentinel would also be needed. The entire time, the marine is fighting and resisting, many times they actually escape once you cross the river because xeno speed is debuffed there.

This would make the tunnels so much more useful.

[MauroVega]

+1 That photo

[SuperKirbyStar]

This is great! 1+

[Varnock]

+1
I've seen posts like this more than once, sure, but I maintain we need SOMETHING better than the devour mechanic. It just isn't good enough to really capture anyone with, and to realistically get someone across river with it in the time they're stunned by a hugger, you need a godforsaken tunnel anyways. This would just be more lore friendly and increase the focus on tactics by the xenos.

I want the hivelords to actually think, man. I rarely if EVER see any tunnels getting made by anyone other than a select few people, most just relying on the ones that spawn in naturally or running the entire way.

Now for the prison this is a bit less important in my opinion, mostly just due to the large amount of vents and easy capability of subsidiary hives for holding marines, but it would still make more sense lore wise considering every time a xeno suddenlys someone, they do it from above/below/hidden and just disappear with the poor screaming bastards.

[GGgobbleCC]

Not very viable, aliens suffer a massive slowdown when pulling someone and whoever you are pulling will wake up and murder you with their magstrapped rifle or machete . You can argue 'well that will require tunnels!' but tunnels require a hivelord that is slow as fuck and easily murdered.

-1, unless aliens get a speed buff

[MauroVega]

Not very viable, aliens suffer a massive slowdown when pulling someone and whoever you are pulling will wake up and murder you with their magstrapped rifle or machete . You can argue 'well that will require tunnels!' but tunnels require a hivelord that is slow as fuck and easily murdered.

-1, unless aliens get a speed buff

So you prefer to get insta gibbed that have a chance to fight?
Ooook

"Get up and murder you with their mag strapped rifle" ever heard of fighting back?tackle spam/pounce

"Aliens get a speed buff" are you gonna say buff aliens in every post you go?

[Boltersam]

Combine this with a heavier grab and +1.

We need this and a better grab, THEN we can nerf huggers! +1!

[MilesWolfe]

only if huggers get nerfed

[Boltersam]

only if huggers get nerfed

They will if this is added. And the text will add to horror

[ShortTemperedLeprechaun]

I like the idea. Though, for certain castes, I like the idea of being able to pop up, and drag down before anyone can react, adding to that horror feel. Runners could possibly be said caste, as they are made of wet paper towels anyways. Plus one altogether.

[forwardslashN]

Combine this with a heavier grab and +1.

+1

[Boltersam]

The marines should get a fake resist while this happens. "X claws at the edges of the hole they're being pulled into, scrabbling for purchase." But it actually does nothing. Because horror and Aliens need this shiz.

[RoswellRay]

I feel like this may make capturing marines a bit too easy with how long it take them to wake up after being hugged. Yes it`s a pain in the ass moving a marine across the map to the nest (though far from impossible) but by the time that aliens are going full offensive across he river and not just picking off the patrols that wander off the aliens should already be building forward nests. Adding this would remove the need for forward nests which add some level of balance and a chance for marines to rescue their own in late game and instead make transporting marines directly to the core of a late game hive where they will have 0 chance of ever escaping extremely easy.

-1 for pulling into tunnels
+1 for removing devouring

[Boltersam]

I feel like this may make capturing marines a bit too easy with how long it take them to wake up after being hugged. Yes it`s a pain in the ass moving a marine across the map to the nest (though far from impossible) but by the time that aliens are going full offensive across he river and not just picking off the patrols that wander off the aliens should already be building forward nests. Adding this would remove the need for forward nests which add some level of balance and a chance for marines to rescue their own in late game and instead make transporting marines directly to the core of a late game hive where they will have 0 chance of ever escaping extremely easy.

-1 for pulling into tunnels
+1 for removing devouring

So you want to completely remove any way for us to quickly transport infected across the map.
And, by that time, the marines have retreated because they didn't hold the line, and are setting up egrilles, sentries and other shenanigans around the shuttle landing area.

[RoswellRay]

Yes actually,it`s not that hard to drag them accross but my point is I want to encourage the practice of aliens expanding south once they force marines to turtle and making forward nests as I feel it makes battles more interesting than an across the map ping pong and would make it reasonably possible for rescue missions of those captured. I feel like if aliens want to get marines nested in the core of their inescapable main super hive they should really have to work for it, while having less defensable forward hives if they don`t want to work for getting the host into the main nest.

[Boltersam]

Yes actually,it`s not that hard to drag them accross but my point is I want to encourage the practice of aliens expanding south once they force marines to turtle and making forward nests as I feel it makes battles more interesting than an across the map ping pong and would make it reasonably possible for rescue missions of those captured.

Honestly, I'd rather have being able to drag people into tunnels and vents, for the horror feel. And we NEVER force marines to turtle, they turtle the second they land.

Why encourage expanding south? No reason to, and it leaves us more open to attacks.

[RoswellRay]

Because it isn`t jsut about xenos, it`s about making the game more interesting. Obviously no one solution equals balance but by far the most fun I tend to have are in rounds where every inch of the planet is fought over rather than cycling between fighting at nexus and fighting at the caves. Other shit will ahve to be implemented but I think just being able to hug a marine with an already long knockout timer and giving aliens more devices ake it way too easy for them to get the marines in the core of their hive isn`t fun for neither side. For the alien it takes away the challenge and for the marine it means absolutely zero chance of rescue.

[Tristan63]

+1 Sadly this might not be implemented due to the devs doing other things But it would be cool as shit.

[Boltersam]

Because it isn`t jsut about xenos, it`s about making the game more interesting. Obviously no one solution equals balance but by far the most fun I tend to have are in rounds where every inch of the planet is fought over rather than cycling between fighting at nexus and fighting at the caves. Other shit will ahve to be implemented but I think just being able to hug a marine with an already long knockout timer and giving aliens more devices ake it way too easy for them to get the marines in the core of their hive isn`t fun for neither side. For the alien it takes away the challenge and for the marine it means absolutely zero chance of rescue.

I'm sorry, haha, did..did you just say aliens have no challenge? Haha haha haha haha haha. Have you played as an alien, ever? I apologise for the rudeness but this literally made me crack up.

[RoswellRay]

I'm sorry, haha, did..did you just say aliens have no challenge? Haha haha haha haha haha. Have you played as an alien, ever? I apologise for the rudeness but this literally made me crack up.

I didn't say no challenge but the difficulty is about on par with the marines, and yes, I mostly play xenos these days. If you want a xeno buff I don't think this is the way to do it,I'm not here to argue balance,just gameplay and I think decisions made regarding these type of changes should be based as much if not more on gameplay than balance if we wan't to keep this game ss13 and not some generic shooter. My argument is that instantly being able to transport marines to the core of the nest across the planet will be boring, it will not encourage strategy or the expansion of hives or and encampments for both side, something which makes rounds more unique and interesting by taking it away from the cookie cutter ping pong between the nexus and the caves instead promoting the fact that a captured marine is beyond the hope of rescue which in turn also keeps marines fromm pushing on the aliens. The most fun I've had in my recent times playing was when the marines built a fort across the river to hold off the aliens, the round became an intense match of each side trying to create a sturdy foothold for their attacks on the enemy, every inch was fought over and built on by both sides.

[Boltersam]

I didn't say no challenge but the difficulty is about on par with the marines, and yes, I mostly play xenos these days. If you want a xeno buff I don't think this is the way to do it,I'm not here to argue balance,just gameplay and I think decisions made regarding these type of changes should be based as much if not more on gameplay than balance if we wan't to keep this game ss13 and not some generic shooter. My argument is that instantly being able to transport marines to the core of the nest across the planet will be boring, it will not encourage strategy or the expansion of hives or and encampments for both side, something which makes rounds more unique and interesting by taking it away from the cookie cutter ping pong between the nexus and the caves instead promoting the fact that a captured marine is beyond the hope of rescue which in turn also keeps marines fromm pushing on the aliens. The most fun I've had in my recent times playing was when the marines built a fort across the river to hold off the aliens, the round became an intense match of each side trying to create a sturdy foothold for their attacks on the enemy, every inch was fought over and built on by both sides.

That does sound fun. You happened upon the best round in a million.

However, I disagree with your view on the difficulty. Marines get cushy work, they sit and click at our (if not runner or hunter) slow moving forms with a sentry propped up beside them. Alien gameplay is much more tense, you have to dodge literal bullets, keep an eye on your wonky health indicator, sift through hive chat to figure out which T3 is ordering you, be extremely fucking careful of rocket launchers if you're a T3 because they insta kill, make sure you're not in the line of fire as T1 or 2 because a handful of shots kill you...

And making it harder to bring hosts back will not encourage forward nests, it will encourage infecting a host and leaving it. Because people are lazy.

[RoswellRay]

That does sound fun. You happened upon the best round in a million.

However, I disagree with your view on the difficulty. Marines get cushy work, they sit and click at our (if not runner or hunter) slow moving forms with a sentry propped up beside them. Alien gameplay is much more tense, you have to dodge literal bullets, keep an eye on your wonky health indicator, sift through hive chat to figure out which T3 is ordering you, be extremely fucking careful of rocket launchers if you're a T3 because they insta kill, make sure you're not in the line of fire as T1 or 2 because a handful of shots kill you...

Eh,marines do turtle quite a bit but I don't find it as much as people like to say. And the only actual issue I've seen dislodging them is whent he xenos refuse to work together (acid capable castes not melting walls,no one planting weeds etc.) To be honest it's actually easier when they turtle in my opinion, kinda like fishing for stragglers when because they don't deploy in sqauds as much as one or two running off from boredom. But in my opinion making it harder for aliens to move hosts all the way back to their nest instantly will encourage marines to not turtle. Less marines will simply be gone forever in the impenetrable hive,instead more likely to be trapped in a forward hive which would give the marines some sense of actually being able to free them to motivate them to leave their bunker. Yes I think we'd need a few other balances to even things out if we went this this but I think it would do a lot to liven up rounds.

[Wickedtemp]

One counterpoint would be that the ONLY xenos capable of actually building tunnels -hivelords- are slow as fuck and are extremely easy to kill. Having them be the only hope of the xeno colony for quickly transporting hosts would be...well, bad.

So huggers would need to stay as is. Otherwise dragging hosts to the hive would suck a shit-ton, no hivelords before the marines arrive = good luck dragging a marine all the way to the hive without a hugger.