THE END OF TIMES

[Liran343]

1. We are going to be removing hugger combat. We are looking to see the EXACT effects hugger combat has, and the best way is to remove it

IT WILL RETURN SOMETIME ON FEBURARY 12TH

So, relax, breath-in, and try to develop new strategies so we can see how combat adjusts. Also, know that we fully expect the aliens to get totally fucking dominated

PLEASE REMAIN CALM

So what do you guys think?

[Sargeantmuffinman]

Prepare your arse to get fucked over since y'all desperately rely on hugger combat for infection and killing.

Some people have already adapted before this change while others need to start learning.

[Jaketeaking]

first thought.

wait until this gets delayed due to 5% xeno win rate, and then it will be

[Lokiki_01]

Well, T3s are mostly carrying the game without huggers at all, cause they have stuns and good damage. T2 with enough skill can take 2-3 marines at once. T1 need to Git GOOD, cause ancient sentinels and runners are OP with group attacks. Only carriers will suck ass now... If they can't use huggers

[Recounted]

This is gonna be gud

[Heckenshutze]

Most xeno players don't really care, with or without huggers you can robust the shit out of the marines!

[Liran343]

I still don't understand what they removed exactly about the huggers. Seem to work more or less the same.

[MrJJJ]

Yea uh, they still haven't removed it apparently...

[dylanstrategie]

Working as intended, actually

I don't know what people expected

[Swagile]

its actually working better than old hugger combat since carrier is now the true meta

also carriers only need one hugger to get you and huggers go over barricades and flipped tables, so its more powerful than crushers

and its a T2

its always been a good caste but now its epic

[apophis775]

SPOILERS:
HUGGER COMBAT WAS A NERF ALL ALONG.

Apparently, that's what was holding the Xenos back from releasing their inner destruction.

[Blazerules]

From what I've seen a ton of people seem to just be saying how this has been a massive xeno buff. Looking at the changelog you can see where they'd get that idea. Kind of feels like hugger combat got replaced by a more potent version of itself.

EDIT:
Also 4+ hour rounds holy shit why.

[Jaketeaking]

SPOILERS:
HUGGER COMBAT WAS A NERF ALL ALONG.

Apparently, that's what was holding the Xenos back from releasing their inner destruction.

3 ROUNDS IN AND HOLY SHIT HES RIGHT.

[Swagile]

the problem is that huggers were actually buffed into the sky

why?

helmets mean nothing anymore except to stop decap from ravs / hunters (which doesn't mean much when your fucked by one if they manage to tackle / pounce / charge you anyway)

you can't take a hugger off and suffer head damage but at least not be hugged

hugging is still a game over, and even more so now that they pop faster within you than ever before, and with no cloning your gone out of the round forever

if you get revived, you will burst with a hugger inside you anyway, so you might as well just ghost and not bother to wait for a revive if you somehow die with a hugger inside you

carriers can throw huggers OVER METAL BARRICADES AND REINFORCED TABLES. not even boilers, a T3 caste, can do this and you can still dodge a boiler blob of acid while huggers are auto tracking missiles that will latch onto your face the moment its thrown near you as they can also leap at you if the carrier somehow misses.


before you say im crying because i got huggered as a marine, ive played as a queen two times in a row since the update (since no one wants to go queen on xeno side like ever), once as a drone, and two times as a RO and even i think the current implementation of no hugger combat is actually just a hidden hugger combat buff all along

[Casany]

Seems like my hunch was finally proven

Marines are just unrobust

[Blazerules]

The only thing I like about this update is that I can now melee xenos. I went full retard two rounds in a row by taking 0 fire arms and only being armed with a machette and throwing knives. Wish throwing knives were better but it was a ton of fun that would otherwise never happen because xenos would just use that retarded hugger combat on you. This actually made melee more viable, even if it's still not viable at all for obvious reasons. (Seriously someone buff throwing knives).

Overall though? That's a lot of xeno buffs to replace the nerf they got. See the problem is marines don't have cloning. So once you are busted you are dead 100%. Now huggers basically insta-pregnate you AND you can't rip huggers off people according to the changelogs (I never tried at least.) this combined with embryos surviving in a marine after death just results in well... a lot of bad, bad things. I'd say at least allow for some way to revive busted marines to counter-balance the fact that hugged = 100% chance to perma-die.

Still the effect it has had on combat is a positive one. I like that. I'd like it to stay even if marine win ratio becomes super low.

[caleeb101]

One thing apop forgot to do is remove Carriers, obviously. If you think about it.. they fight with huggers. What else can that be called? Hugger combat. What did he say was going to be removed temporarily? Hugger combat. I'm feeling like Sherlock right now. But seriously, I've never seen so many carriers before. They seem to be more popular than boilers and crushers now. And when the sulaco gets attacked, it's from like 33 xenos. That's literally the amount that attacked last round I played. This test has gone wayyy differently than I thought it would. It's interesting.

[apophis775]

Well, this is testing
We are going to be throwing a boatload of random stuff in throughout the week to see how it works.

[Telegnats]

I'm beginning to think that everyone here has a different understanding of the term 'hugger combat'.

[Heckenshutze]

Okay, as a marine player like stated above it's fun the fact you can actually go 1v1 on a Xeno. I hate when you're killing a Xeno and a lame ass runner jumps next to you and slaps a hugger and runs off.

Since this is a test a lot of things could change until monday but so far, this is a fair proof that Xenos can win without huggers, but, I think this started as a nerf and ended as a massive buff. But CAUTION, this is from a standard marine perspective.. As alien can't tell the difference since I never used huggers to fight

[Swagile]

I'm beginning to think that everyone here has a different understanding of the term 'hugger combat'.

I don't mind carriers being hugger combat central, thats their purpose.

What I do mind is the oversight of huggers going over all types of barricades, and huggers both not being able to be taken off + taking a LOT less time to burst out of you.

Barricades should block huggers.

Huggers should either be able to be taken off but stick to the faster incubation time, OR make it so you can't take off a face hugger BUT we got back to old incubation time so they have a chance to at least leg it to Sulaco / LZ1 medical (if they have one) instead of bursting on the way there.

And carriers never run out of eggs if a queen is good and has at least one sentinel / boiler providing it plasma (I had half the old amount of eggs I usually pop in my egg rooms as queen one round because i had a dedicated mature boiler and ancient sentinel + a couple of drones giving me plasma). So if that was why the buff was made, then its not hard to imagine that its not needed if carriers don't run out of eggs in the first place if queen commands a few people to plasma her constantly.

The only times that xenos might have a problem is if its mid - low pop, and thats when the buffs / nerfs of no hugger combat start to show their weaknesses (in theory, as I have not played during mid - low pop).

[Telegnats]

Not what I meant though the idea is interesting. I'm more concerned with the fact that everyone seems to understand what constitutes 'hugger combat' to be different things.

[Renomaki]

Yeah, this test sure is a bit wacky so far.

I kinda miss when helmets used to protect you from huggers, giving you a chance to recover, but now if you get hugged (which is really easy now due to how sudden huggers can come at you via carrier), you are pretty much already dead and there is no point in trying to remove the larva. Just keep fighting till you pop, because you are not getting that larva removed fast enough.

Honestly, I'd like it if we could remove huggers like we used to, if only to reduce the amount of infected marines that doctors have to deal with. In a recent 3 hour round as CO, I had to deal with marines bursting in the OR every few minutes. So many aliens died as larva that round, but at the same time, it was just excessive how often it happened.

I hope they take that into account during the testing phase.

[Skelton]

The issue now is that huggers are now a timed death sentence of like 3 minutes. If you get hugged, you will still be unconscious for the full 60 seconds or however long it was with previous huggers despite huggers now infesting very rapidly. You now burst more rapidly as well, just to see how it would work I watched an SL get hugged from his helmet cam and told him just to go straight to the rasp and go to medbay for a full medical examination. He left from Nexus North boarded the rasp and burst either before the rasp landed or on his way to medbay.

Even with an early warning that he had to go to medbay immediately he still died. I thought the general rule was that if something cannot be countered it must be considered OP. Given that the only counter to getting hugged is to not move after it's been thrown (giving them time to just... throw another...?) I can only assume huggers as they stand are making Carriers OP as fuck.

[Blazerules]

In a round yesterday I played as a CL. I got to watch as multiple marines bursted open while attempting to get to the ladders. It kinda got ridiculous but eventually it just stopped happening. I assume the other marines decided to take a "fuck it" approach and not bother heading up to medical since it's a guaranteed death.

The only real counter to this is to have a surgery room set up in a FoB. But that would require IC knowledge of just how fast these things pop.

A test is a test, hopefully this is something on the chopping block.