Ravager, the xenomorph engine of war

[saronsen]

Summary: Instead of the Ravager being a bigger Hunter with none of mobility, the Ravager will be created in response to attacks on the Hive, instead of just an upgrade.

Benefits: The Ravager becomes a more powerful sustained fighter instead of a glorified charge-bot. They may actually be chosen (and more successful) than they currently are, and a good alternative to just having Hunters clogging up the T2 field.

Details: The Ravager is not meant to just be fodder, or an oversized Runner capturing hosts. The Ravager kills. The Ravager obliterates. Thus I have some suggested changes for it.

The Ravager can not pick up facehuggers or devour anymore. They only have one objective, and it's to maim and kill. They can still just opt to remove limbs, but when was that ever a safe way of securing a host?

The Ravager regains a small percentage of its health when striking, and when killing. While this is up to the balance team, I suggest 5-7.5% of its maximum health is gained when scoring hits, and 10% on dismemberments (Which are generally kills with beheadings)

The Ravagers charge becomes an initiation tool. The distance is increased to 6 tiles, and will throw aside ALL entities between it and the destination, including other xenomorphs, which are also stunned for 1.5 seconds. The base cooldown is 60 seconds, and decreases by 10 every time it grows, down to 30 at Ancient. Enemies at the destination tile are thrown directly straight backwards instead of pushed aside, similar to how the Ravagers charge works now.

The Ravager is no longer stunned by HE Grenades/Rockets and Claymores, and briefly stunned by larger explosions. AP Rockets slap them on their ass still, however.

The Ravager, overall, gains 20% of a larger health pool to start, to make up for its charge no longer being a decent escape tool.

The Ravager is no longer immune to fire. It still takes damage and burns, but gains a small amount of damage reduction and movement speed for a short duration after receiving fire damage.



Thanks Toroic for the suggested changes.

[YungCuz]

I mean....this is a little iffy for a suggestion but what your suggesting is like a Ravager that has infinite life since it will just rush every marine shredding them all gaining life at the same time cause thats maybe a little op for xenos and they have tons of good stuff to use anyway so i'll be neutral since this seems a little suggestive.

[saronsen]

It gains SOME life based on damage, not fully heals. It would likely have little damage deflection, and just a large health pool. Won't need AP rounds to penetrate, just lots of bullets, which marines have.

That and it'll only have its charge after an extremely long cooldown, so it can't exactly rush CONSTANTLY.

[coolsurf6]

I love it!

But get rid of having a queen to die cause that is just useless.

[saronsen]

It's meant to be a declaration of war, in a sense, coolsurf. I'll keep it in as a possibility. The Queen doesn't have to die, it can just be a number of hive members beforehand. Wouldn't you want vengeance for the last queen though?

[saronsen]

Updated and altered. Ravager just might be worthy of the T3 slot now.

[glowingverity]

I really like this idea, actually. I think that it gives the Ravager a unique mechanic which is what it needs to be a pick viable in a world where Hunters and Crushers are infinitely more valuable. However, I can definitely see where this could get out of hand. If the marines get trapped within one tile of a ravager, he's going to last a much longer time than he really should. Also, if the Ravager is completely useless for capturing hosts, then he'll be much less useful in a situation where growing the hive is optimal. It'll be like it is now: only go him if your team is already set and you don't need a Crusher.

[saronsen]

Well...

[glowingverity]

Well...

The question is, is the drawback not completely debilitating to Ravager being useful? It'd be useless as the first tier 3. It'd still be "Give me crushers before anything else."

[Jay Burns]

I used to love playing rav, make ravs great again.

+1

[SPACEpotato1]

+1 RAV

+1 RAAAAVVV.

[completelynewguy]

+1, in hopes of making then new meta Rav-centric.

[Bath Salts Addict]

-1 to Ravs not being immune to fire.
+1 to everything else

[Sars Clayton]

+1 make it snow

[OatzAndHoes]

-1
While I agree that ravs should be revamped to make them a viable alternative to upgraded hunters, I don't think this is the way to go about it. It doesn't make sense for a xeno to be a pure killing machine, simply because that goes against the entire purpose of the xeno species, which is to breed by using facehuggers. A xeno that can't facehug doesn't have a means to reproduce and therefore has no biological purpose. It would be like if somehow humans evolved to have giant swords between their legs instead of penises. They wouldn't be able to reproduce and therefore couldn't evolve. Also I don't think we need to encourage beheading marines even more than it is right now.

[Sars Clayton]

AGAIN RP doesn't always go with server balance, rav needs a buff, this is headed in the right direction. I've yet to see a better suggestion.

[saronsen]

-1 A xeno that can't facehug doesn't have a means to reproduce and therefore has no biological purpose.

Except, you know, all those times when you end up losing more than you gain if you try to facehug certain enemies? Kill a few hosts to save a dozen sisters? Seems like a fair trade.

Also this is LITERALLY the Ravagers purpose in Extinction, and is stated in the aliens wiki pages that the Ravager is designed, and instinctually goes to decapitate enemies, thus making them impossible to impregnate. The opposite of what it is now, which is a big fat runner.

[Boltersam]

-1
While I agree that ravs should be revamped to make them a viable alternative to upgraded hunters, I don't think this is the way to go about it. It doesn't make sense for a xeno to be a pure killing machine, simply because that goes against the entire purpose of the xeno species, which is to breed by using facehuggers.

Aaaaactually....

This is the eeeentire purpose of the Ravager in any form of lore. Kill. Maim. Slaughter. The Engineers made a weapon. Sure, a weapon that reproduces, but a weapon nonetheless, the Ravager is probably a form that occurs when the Hive has a stable supply/cache of infected hosts and larvae, when they can afford to simply kill.

[qDan]

Like TSs way of thinking, but if all this features will bea dded to current ravagers, theyll become too OP and will be able to solo-yolo even small groups of mehrinz not just lone one. Instead, Id like to suggest ragemode, similar to Crushers charge option. While raging active, it will constantly drain plasma per time or per action (for every own attack and per bullets\fire\explosions deflection\damage reduction, for example) and Ravager will be able to fight berserk-style, receiving attack and defense bonuses, maybe those which topic starter proposed.

Also, instead of direct buffing Ravagers, devs, if possible, may separate suggested features to every level from young to ancient, making (possibly not only Ravagers but all T3 aluems in such way) stronger on elite and ancient levels on evolution and weaker on young. Currently talking about Ravager class - by upgrading he may recieve additional immunity, like immunity to fire on 'mature', immunity to standart grenades on 'elite' and immunity to SADAR HE rockets and partly to AT on 'ancient'. Same system for other features.

For now Im 0, but if somebody will offer optimized idea, Ill +1 it.

[Snypehunter007]

viewtopic.php?f=59&t=7075#p122569

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