New Xeno sprites are a Hunter/lurker nerf

[OatzAndHoes]

As nice as some of the new xeno sprites look, they have a serious impact on gameplay. Almost all xeno castes are easier to click on by marines due to their larger sizes. Furthermore stealth heavy castes like hunter/lurker and runner are now much easier to spot even when in their respective stealthmodes. I'll post some pictures later for comparison but a lot of tiles which made good hunter hiding spots are now much harder to use.

[Lukey111]

nuh need nerf too OP can scare the living souls out of ungas

[Sulaboy]

New sprites make it easier to slash marines after pounce. Also sneak in the dark, there is more to stealth thank cloak on weeds or hide under table.

[Papa_Pollard]

I like the new sprites they look actually Scary** instead of power ranger xenos

[Weaselburg]

I like the new sprites they look actually Scary** instead of power ranger xenos

I liked my power ranger sprites.

[OatzAndHoes]

New sprites make it easier to slash marines after pounce. Also sneak in the dark, there is more to stealth thank cloak on weeds or hide under table.

Slashing marines after a pounce was never difficult. And the new hunter sprites make even sneaking in the dark more difficult as they encompass 3-4 tiles instead of 1 now. I like most of the new xeno sprites but I really do think the new hunter ones should be reworked or reverted. Difficult tasks like sneaking into a marine fob or onto a dropship just went from difficult things that required practice and timing to near impossible imo. I really wish I took more screenshots of old hunter sprites sneaking on various tiles, because the difference is very noticeable. Hell even sneaking near a wall on sneaky tiles like grass is hard now because your head/tail overlaps with it most of the time. This new sprite makes all aspects of stealth a lot more difficult.

[Sulaboy]

-Snip

They're called lurkers now, and that is what they should do. Hiding in the darkness just out of sight of marines, finding an opportunity to pick one off. They're not meant to infiltrate the dropship, but for hiding in the dark to find that lone marine who decided to check that shimmer they thought they saw. Play with night vision off, and spend time planning out your hits.

The game is changing and this new change in naming gives us some idea of how these classes are meant to be played. Lurkers should "feel" squishier, and they should be a lone marines nightmare. When you go into any place that is well lit or has multiple marines it makes it that much more difficult to hide. Lurkers are hard hitters, and getting them into position should be a somewhat difficult task.

Before I saw cloaked hunters slashing marines just by walking up, and I'm sure I'll still see this happen every once in a while. Lurkers will need to adapt to deal with these changes.

[OatzAndHoes]

...

I think you're missing the point of my post. Lurkers should be a stealth caste. I like that we are having a tree more focused on stealth now. The issue is that when the tree got separated, the stealth aspect got nerfed. I have no problem with a lurker health nerf. Its just the changes made to the sprites are counter to the way lurkers are meant to be played. As someone who has been stealthing for years with hunters, it is significantly more difficult now, and I'm guessing will just make it a role that is only picked because players will want to go rav.

[Loco52]

I do believe Xeno sprites are kind of a buff in some sense. I was the delta SL a few rounds ago with a bunch of deltas with me and about 5 xenos jumped us. I stood and fought becaue meh 5 xenos are killable and actually 4 were repelled by flamethrower, last one got me, but most of the rines who were with us retreated... why? Well, they were 5 but looked like A LOT MORE and very very tough to the point the rines who were with me simply ran off thinking we were being overwhelmed when in reality attackers were 5 suicidal xenos who coulda died instantly right there. Psychological effect is t h i c c

[Sulaboy]

-Snip

I do get the point, but I'm saying that the cloak not making you totally invisible is the problem, the play style is. I don't think lurkers need any health changes, people just need to play them differently. With the changes to their movement speed you need to focus on positioning. Have an escape route planned, and stay out of the light as much as you can.

I think lurkers are still viable without the cloak entirely, many hunters never used their cloak. Lurkers now should find a way to incorporate their cloak. This ambush class could end up being something special, and now that hunters aren't considered the frontline class we might see interesting lurker play.

I get that this post is about the sprite but I feel that the changes to the play style come into play with this.

[Butlerblock]

I do get the point, but I'm saying that the cloak not making you totally invisible is the problem, the play style is. I don't think lurkers need any health changes, people just need to play them differently. With the changes to their movement speed you need to focus on positioning. Have an escape route planned, and stay out of the light as much as you can.

I think lurkers are still viable without the cloak entirely, many hunters never used their cloak. Lurkers now should find a way to incorporate their cloak. This ambush class could end up being something special, and now that hunters aren't considered the frontline class we might see interesting lurker play.

I get that this post is about the sprite but I feel that the changes to the play style come into play with this.

The problem is that xenos that make up more than one tile are extremely buggy, and can be seen even through the dark, as they stick out through walls, and it's much easier to see a transparent xeno on a concrete black surface than anything else.

Another thing is that the hunter movement changes weren't intentional, almost none of the movement changes were, they were just bugs from the smooth movement update.

[Sulaboy]

-Snip

I'm not a dev so I don't know The first thing about fixing any of these problems. The sprites are only slightly larger than a tile, but that bug where some parts clip and are lit up is a problem. I don't think it happens that often, but from my experience it mostly tends to happen when moving between tiles. As for the movement speed, yes it was unintentional, but that's something we have to deal with right now. I don't want he sprites to be reverted. These new ones look good so if something is done to fix clipping problems with the sprite lurkers should be in a good place.

[OatzAndHoes]

...

The problem is that the sprites are clunky, so that even sneaking in the darkness is now much harder without a cloak. I almost exclusively played hunter as a stealth ambusher nipping at supply lines and rear-echelon guys but now you need to keep at least 2 tiles back from light and walls unless you want to risk being seen. I've been trying to get used to it but it just feels so clunky now that I'd rather just say fuck it and play as a rav or warrior. I like the sprites they're just too big for a stealth caste, and run into all the bugs we see with other multi-tile xenos.

[Sulaboy]

-Snip

All I can say to this then is to submit a bug report to the gitlab about problems with clipping. Find situations that cause these problems and let the devs know on there.

[Butlerblock]

All I can say to this then is to submit a bug report to the gitlab about problems with clipping. Find situations that cause these problems and let the devs know on there.

Clipping has been known by basically everyone since the release of large than 1x1 sprites, which has been a couple years now.

[Sulaboy]

https://gitlab.com/cmdevs/ColonialMarines/issues/3131

Oatz made his git. I don't like losing the new sprite and I don't like that the lurker's stature is not well represented ingame if its size was changed to 1x1 but it's not my place to say.

[Loco52]

I demand a ban on all those who dare criticize new sprites

[kroack]

The sprites are okay.

I think the real nerf is that defenders/warrior have so much more survivability and utility than lurkers and runner. I don't see a real reason why you would want to play as a runner when a lucky burst will end you, unless you're gunning straight for ravager. And even then, warrior seems more useful and better in a straight up fight.

[Vampmare]

I reckon we should take the time to get used to the new sprites. The artwork was nicely done, but one could complain about the various sizes about xenos as you say. We used to be able to identify big xenos as T3, but now they're kind of mashed together with Defender being the same size as Ravager. The shading generally fits better onto the weeds, they don't have this outline to pop them out anymore.