"threat to the hive" system - tie alien evo rate to ratio of living team members

[misto]

Summary (a quick, 2-3 sentence summary): correct me if im wrong, but is the alien evo rate constant? this can result in some tough evolved creatures early in the round even if there are pathetically few marines online to combat them. thus i propose that the evo points accumulation rate drop or raise based on the current "threat to the hive" that is, the # of active marines vs # of living aliens

Benefits (How this will benefit the server and game as a whole): challenge and entertainment in gameplay

Details (Description of how you think this would work, the benefits, etc):

if it already works like this or has some similar mechanism just close this up

the functioning of the game assumes that tons of people are online who want to join as marine. sometimes you even respawn them as erts. if your player count dips (at night for example) the team imbalance grows even more exaggerated. if a low # of marines are online it can be a real stomp, even as theyre stepping off the plane.

if it were possible to tie evo rate to team ratios, then the "threat to the hive" would be sensed as low in this case if there were few marines online and evo growth would be less necessary.

if for some reason there are a huge number of marines alive compared to aliens, then the "threat to the hive" can be sensed to be high and evo rate can be kicked into high gear(if you really think thats necessary...)

exact ratio numbers and how much it affects evo point accumulation rate can be debated and experimented with.

all your powers and tactics should still work it just might take a little longer to get big/ancient if youve killed off lots of marines or if there are few marine players in the first place.

i hope this will result in a more challenging and entertaining time for both teams even under circumstances of low playercount

one thing though, dont affect larvae with this, its boring enough waiting to be able to grow up

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

[Garrison]

An interesting way of reverse engineering the Distress beacon system for Alien evolution.

Neutral, I don't really hold an opinion on this since I have no major complaints with the current system.

[ZDashe]

this can result in some tough evolved creatures early in the round even if there are pathetically few marines online to combat them.

But... round start is the time when there's the most number of marines vs Xenos...

if for some reason there are a huge number of marines alive compared to aliens, then the "threat to the hive" can be sensed to be high and evo rate can be kicked into high gear

So you mean at round start, where humans will always outnumber Xenos, lets say for example, 4:1, theat level is relatively high, so Xenos should evolve faster? That kinda contradicts what you said before and resulting in tougher evolved creatures early in the round.

Not sure if there's really a need to touch evolution rates.

[misto]

did you miss my (if you think that is really necessary)? i put that there for a reason. because i do not personally think its necessary, given that aliens routinely maintain high numbers of wins against such outnumbered odds

let me put it more simply

if the aliens arent outnumbered enough, slow their evo rate, because the game is generally balanced around them being incredibly outnumbered

(learn the story behind the thread! i posted this after i got off a round where there were so few human players that a dropship pilot was determined to be the highest ranking person present and thus had to give us our briefing. we dropped and about a minute after stepping off the plane i was bodyslammed by a crusher and killed. i then proceeded to respawn as a larva, grew into a drone and spread some weeds around. i volunteered to get switched into the queen's body because our queen went afk, and we mopped up what marines remained with absolute ease, with only a minor speedbump as a good sniper helped a small fob of marines delay us for a few minutes)

[ZDashe]

I'm kinda hesitant against the idea of setting an equilibrium "ratio". That means that Xenos who are greatly outnumbered will be incentivized to turtle and hide all over the place just to get their strength back up. At the other side of the spectrum, it also pushes Xeno evolution at round start much faster than usual, further punishing marines who take a long time to deploy. Slowing their evo rate when they are not outnumbered enough would similarly incentivize Xenos to hold off engaging marines and keep building up strength till the equilibrium point is reached, and thereafter start a sudden push and overwhelm everyone in an instant.

I think it's fine the way it is, no need to shift up the meta for evolution rate. There's another thread that suggests larva incubation rates/growth (viewtopic.php?f=59&t=7437), which would probably make more sense than altering evo rates of live Xenos.

[misto]

it only pushes xeno evo faster if it is coded to go faster. upper and lower limits can be set. the current evo rate could serve as the upper limit of the new scale. would you like me to remove that bit in the initial post?

[Snypehunter007]

We have had a similar suggestion that was denied before.

Edit: Reviewed and discussed by BMC.

Denied due to encouraging xenos to sit and camp instead of spreading out.