Update Discussion thread (14FEB18)

[SolarMacharius]

If I had to guess its probally to make the queen more vulnerable to marines as normally she is unkillable unless the player makes a really stupid mistake like charging in at no health or hitting a wall.

[Retrokinesis]

Wow. That's not a change I saw coming at all, but it makes a lot of sense. Stops the queen from Screeching and then just running away to let the rest of the xenos clean-up without any risk to herself, or charging off at near-death to undo every near-kill.

Good change that nerfs the queen without gutting huge chunks of her kit or armor or the like.

[Gnorse]

Spooky I fucking love you man

[spookydonut]

This was 100% rahl's idea I just did the 4 line change.

[Gnorse]

In that case :

I fuckin' love you rahl.

[Steelpoint]

The Screech + Charge was an obnoxious combo. Her charging ability was the worst offender since it makes it very hard to pin down a good Queen, with the removal of stuns from explosives a Queen can go to major lengths to avoid confrontation for an extended period. I recall a round where a Queen was able to dodge the Marines for so long, even when the Hive was practically dead, that it took a Predator to finally track her down and kill her after half an hour if not longer.

[WinterClould]

Game is fixed. Jk but this is a top teir update.

[Blade2000Br]

Now, for the buff on the military police to balance this nerf.

[Lorem123]

Thank god that this was put in. I've seen too many rounds where the queen just charges around the Almayer/ground in a circuit to delay the game end or force marines to chase her and inevitably die to the screech

[Saytkl77]

I think Queen charge was used to much to delay, Queens would scream kill 1 or 2 marines, then charge to the other side of the map and repeat. The only real way marines had to kill the queen was flanking with multiple squads, which did also eventually happen, but if they got unlucky it can take ages to actually happen. This style of play also had no real comeback for the queen, it would take her several hours of screeching and running to kill the entire marine force even if she got incredibly lucky and never got caught in a flank.

[TheMaskedMan2]

Queen is slow girl now. I'll miss the charge to be honest, it was fun to ram people over, but I understand the nerf.

[caleeb101]

Queen is slow girl now. I'll miss the charge to be honest, it was fun to ram people over, but I understand the nerf.

xeno sympathizer spotted

[Kesserline]

On the three rounds I played in a row, marines failed everytime (except for a Death Squid - Mutiny that strangely rekted the Hive for the Marines).

Yet, it was very pleasant to play. I feel like having more challenge fighting the smaller xenos who have to step up and not stand behind the queen to do all the job.

There are also way more skirmishes across the map instead of a big frontline that will soon or later welcome a queen charge+screech wombo combo.

Totally a great update, let's see in the next days if it'll change things deeply, but at least, it feels really painless to play now.

[TheMaskedMan2]

So i've tried Queen since the change, and while I will agree with removing the charge and super speedy zoom Queen. I do think the base movement speed nerf was a bit much.

Lower it, for sure, but right now the Queen moves slower than a crusher walking, she's a big stompy girl, I get it. I just think she feels like a bit of a cripple now, a single Marines can outrun even Elite Empress on Frenzy currently. Bit odd.

Perhaps it will take a bit of getting used too but I think the base movement speed was a little much.

[caleeb101]

So i've tried Queen since the change, and while I will agree with removing the charge and super speedy zoom Queen. I do think the base movement speed nerf was a bit much.

Lower it, for sure, but right now the Queen moves slower than a crusher walking, she's a big stompy girl, I get it. I just think she feels like a bit of a cripple now, a single Marines can outrun even Elite Empress on Frenzy currently. Bit odd.

Perhaps it will take a bit of getting used too but I think the base movement speed was a little much.

I think that it makes xenos support and surround the queen more, shielding her and defending her from damage which is what I expect to see unlike the old queen who would go into any practically any situation and come out with at least a little health left and at most completely unscathed. If the CD for a new queen is increased as well, I think it'd force more of this behaviour from xenos. But I dunno, it seems like she can be a bit easy to kill now. Maybe a health buff?

[SolarMacharius]

Boilers are going to become much more important now for pushes. Whereas before Xenos could rely on the queen to clear areas. I greatly prefer the queen being a last line of defense for a hive over being a line breaker.

[Nickvr628]

The queen should not be sprinting into combat, I kind of like that the marines can outrun her. A coordinated marine push is now pretty dangerous for the queen, and she cannot be a front line combatant anymore.

[Rohesie]

This feels like pre-ovi queen. Couldn't be more pleased with the change. This is something I did not see coming, since it forfeits the charging queen sprite, but I couldn't have asked for a better one balance-wise.

Keep it up!

[davidofmk771]

I would like to see the charge stay as something a little weaker and needing a lot more buildup.

[Casany]

I would like to see the charge stay as something a little weaker and needing a lot more buildup.

But why does she need the charge? She already has neuro and screech. I don’t get it, why do people want the queen to just be an almagimation of every caste? She’s supposed to be strong and beefy but she’s not supposed to be offensive. The charge is literally only used for offense. The queen right now is more of a defensive thing, with the screech and neuro preventing people from closing unless there are too many.

[davidofmk771]

But why does she need the charge? She already has neuro and screech. I don’t get it, why do people want the queen to just be an almagimation of every caste? She’s supposed to be strong and beefy but she’s not supposed to be offensive. The charge is literally only used for offense. The queen right now is more of a defensive thing, with the screech and neuro preventing people from closing unless there are too many.

Is like in the movie!

[Casany]

Is like in the movie!

Remove the neuro and screech and I’ll have the charge

[spookydonut]

a single Marines can outrun even Elite Empress on Frenzy currently. Bit odd.

This is literally what we intended to do, glad to hear we got it right first time.

[davidofmk771]

Remove the neuro and screech and I’ll have the charge

I would say remove the neuro (kinda OP for queen anyways imo), and somehow implement something that prevents a screech from being used during and after a charge for lets say, a 10-30 second period. Maybe even make the charge do relatively insignificant damage to structures and marines while still flinging them (the marines that is) outta the way?

Basically I wanna see a way for a queen to escape a sticky situation without bringing back the one queen barricade wrecking crew or the charge-screech superslam jam.

[Geikkamir]

I would say remove the neuro (kinda OP for queen anyways imo), and somehow implement something that prevents a screech from being used during and after a charge for lets say, a 10-30 second period. Maybe even make the charge do relatively insignificant damage to structures and marines while still flinging them (the marines that is) outta the way?

Basically I wanna see a way for a queen to escape a sticky situation without bringing back the one queen barricade wrecking crew or the charge-screech superslam jam.

But the fact that it could be used as a easy get-out-of-jail-free card was the entire reason it was removed to begin with.