My Thoughts On Blink

[Fewlio]

Hell, the reason why they got rid of the old blink is because it got stuck in *every* entity. I like that idea where its a point, shoot, watch the ghost fade, letgo *blink*, Battlezone2 had something similar to that .

Also gem, which gun teleports you like the old fade blink in RC? Because last time I played it, there wasnt a gun which instantly teleported you in the direction you shot....

IMO skulk needs to be made stronger, I mean doubling its HP would be awesome, because I love skulks ^_^, and skulks are much more weaksauce than they were before*cough*speed nerf*cough*, so anyone who can aim and knows where to look when running around the map can rape most ninja skulks. Bring back uber skulks! Or at least leap doing any damage...

[fatty]

more hives = better armor absorption, right? how about hive 1 skulks start out with the game thinking they have 2 hives (no leap obviously).

*back the thread's topic*
i hate one thing about the current blink: you don't need energy to stay in the air. try it out folks, blink into the corner of a ceiling, hold down your attack button, and you will never come down. i don't think it should be like that. when you run out, you should fall to the ground.

[SaltzBad]

But you're also almost always out, fatty. Plus, if you constantly blink you'll never get enough speed out of it to fly fast enough - meaning rape is coming your way. You need to at least blink-hop.

If you want to buff Skulks HP, yeah +5 or +10 works. +5 would mean Weapons 1 actually shaves off a bullet to kill a Skulk now, and it'd still be a reasonably subtle buff.

[a civilian]

i hate one thing about the current blink: you don't need energy to stay in the air. try it out folks, blink into the corner of a ceiling, hold down your attack button, and you will never come down. i don't think it should be like that. when you run out, you should fall to the ground.

I just tried that, and it didn't work.  I kept falling to the ground.  I also distinctly remember it not working when I was blinking around in the landing pad area outside the marine start on Hera.

[Black Mage]

Well, the Fade desperately needs his movement to stand a remote chance at survival at all - so whatever new blink you introduce, the fade needs to change groundspeeds to still be useful.

I think one of the biggest problems in balancing any current lifeform is the sheer amount of movement abilities they need to be able to consistantly catch a marine - nerfing marine strafing and/or crack hopping would lessen this problem a bit.

unless you never see the fade coming before he starts attacking (invisible with 1.5x - 2.0x groundspeed would accompish this nicely)

oh, and if this discussion ends up somewhere useful can we link flay to it?

@civ: get adrenaline, you do not have to land ... evar

[BobTheJanitor]

I pretty much had the same idea as BM with the blink making you fade (omg fade just like the name LOL) out and become totally invisible and allow bullets to pass through you, then move wherever you want to go and BLINK back into existance. The fade would need serious health and armor nero_oe, but that's fine. He'd be almost unkillable with correct application of blink. What he wouldn't be is a total RT destroyer. You'd still need teamwork to take down RTs in the mid game, which is fine. The fade is supposed to be a harrassment troop anyway, and right now it's the tank. The onos is supposed to be the freaking tank, but don't get me started on that lumbering bullet magnet.

Of course none of this will go anywhere. The game has moved beyond the point of making HUGE WILD DRAMATIC changes like that. So take your the fade for what it is: a really loud uber-skulk.

[Path]

I may have to take the fade for what it is, but I am still saddened by its loss of stealth and surprise. Currently, the fade is as sneaky as an elephant. A flaming elephant. Even a simple foot speed increase to help a non-celerity fade catch and smash crack-jumping side-strafing marines would make me more than happy, and would reduce the need to learn the precise skill of a smooth blink-attack (I've always been more of a flailer).

A change to the fade which restored invisibility would come with a cost, likely decreased HP/AP, but would make dramatic effects on the marine team which are desperately needed. Marines would need caution. They would have something to fear. The fade would be restored to the terror unit it was intended to be, finally sacrificing the ability to take down bases for supreme prowess in slaughter. With death waiting around every turn, I feel that such a change would have great impacts on the marine psyche. Such a simple thing may be enough to alter midgame (and to a lesser degree, endgame) strategies and actions of the marines all across the board.

[/edit] I do so despise typos...

[A Boojum Snark]

Another thing to bring up, is with this invisability type of blink would the fade show up on MT while using it?

[Leaderz0rz]

it would be pointless if he did

[Diablus]

wouldnt matter if it was on mt, mt is all laggy so you dont know every move of the aliens and blink you barley see him on mt while blinking, looks like a skulk leaping in a room on mt

[-Lancer-]

You need to at least blink-hop.

This is a technique I use all the time as fade, if you just tap the mouse when blinking, you can get considerably far without using that much stamina at all. Very useful for when you turn a corner and there are 6 marines with lvl3 shotties.

[Mr.Ben]

Surely an invisible fade that just appears anywhere and then disapeers again and cannot recieve damange is going to make things worse? Right now if you want to kill a fade you generally get him by blocking him when he blinks out or by having him blink round a corner into a bunch of shotgunners and he can't get out of there in time. I really can't see this doing anything other than making the fade an even more powerful unit.

As for taking down an rt, if it's not electrified what teamwork is required in one skulk eating it? If it's elec then maybe team work would be needed but once you get a second hive a bile bombing gorge > elec rt.

Also, i do not believe any such changes would have any effect on the marine mentality, path. New sensory chamber abilities were meant to have that effect but they don't at all. Aliens go sensory and the marines go "ahaha, GG two hive lockdown" instead of "OMG the aliens could be anywhere?!" quick lets hide!. They couldn't care less that the aliens are invisible.

I think invisibility making people cautious just doesn't work, okay the alien could be anywhere so lets not move round the corner. Well the alien could be right next to you anyway so you might as well keep going because if he's invisible there's nothing to stop him eating you where you are. At least by moving through like a freight train you've got more chance of survival.

[SaltzBad]

You need to at least blink-hop.

This is a technique I use all the time as fade, if you just tap the mouse when blinking, you can get considerably far without using that much stamina at all. Very useful for when you turn a corner and there are 6 marines with lvl3 shotties.

Even better if you don't hit forward between touchdowns, and just use strafe+mouseturns to accelerate additionally. The Fades groundspeed is extremely low compared to his blink speed, when you get a good blink hop going is when you move very smoothly - an observer might mistake that for having unlimited energy.

But yeah, Fades and blink aren't all that overpowered. The reason you see any Fade that lives for any noteworthy amount of time constantly blink is because its an absolute must, he's no tank whatsoever. 2 good LMGers would shred him if he didn't, and a moment of stupidity or simply bad luck in maintaining speed will get him killed instantly against higher weaponry.

Back on topic, whats almost definitely going to happen is the upper 40% of the Fades crouching model to disappear (afaik his size and bounding boxes as of now are completely intentional - the height of his visual representation isn't, according to the bugtracker at least) - that little fix could reasonably be paired with something to make blink look blinkier. Like fixing the animations ("Oh no its flying mutant zombie jesus with spastic feet!"), or adding some sort of transparency while blinking (sort of like cloaking - a fast fadeout as you initiate blink, a slow fade-in as you release the blink button [in common use, anything but an adrenaline Fade would never really be invisible]).

[Geminosity]

fool, go play Rocket Crowbar 2 and buy the gauss cannon... 2ndary fire = fade blink without sticking problems.  I suggest any naysayers grab it (google for it, I'm lazy) because it proves that fade blinking didn't need to be changed for technical reasons :p

On the fun side you can also instagib the other players with it XD

Seriously though, I can make the old buggy fade blink easily... it's not hard, fixing it so it's like the rocketcrowbar one is the real challenge and the RC2 pulled it off beautifully ^^

[Path]

MrBen, you probably have a good point there (although sensory comes with too high a cost to the alien team). I was just remembering what things were like in 1.04, when in all my nubbishness I was frightened to turn around the corner when fades came around. Basically ignore the second paragraph of my last post because while it says some things I've been thinking, it would seem my dramatic flair got the best of me. That’s what you get posting while yer tired. More on track though, reading Saltz post actually led me to realize exactly what I think needs to be done. He has a good idea too, and I'll go over that in a bit.

The fade is fundamentally weak in HP/AP, and that’s true, but the main weakness comes in blinks inability to get the fade close enough to the marine without giving him enough warning. When the marine sees a fade flapping towards him, he can get a good bead on him and where he will land. With a bit of crack-jumping or side-strafing, a decent LMG marine can seriously injure an average fade, and a shotty marine could kill even a skilled one.  

Say Saltz’ idea were implemented, the one about a quick cloaking effect on the fade during a blink. If a fade at the bottom of a hill encountered a marine at the top, they would both see each other and get ready to kill one another. The only difference is that instead of the marine lining the fade up and filling him full of lead as he approached, the fade would *gasp* fade! Against a lone marine without cover, the fade would have favorable chances of winning. Without the knowledge of where the fade will be coming from (dead on, or land behind and come in from the back?) the marine can't use his range to blast the fade to itty bits when he approaches or lands. This may not be a huge advantage, and footspeed changes may be more effective, but I still think the fade deserves something to this extent.
It could even be an unbalancing advantage, I certainly don't see how, but it's possible if many grouped marines couldn't stand up to this type of fade.

[Geminosity]

keeping the current 'superman' in but altering it's name then replacing the water pisto- uh... acid rocket with a working teleport blink would work now that I think of it =o

[Black Mage]

gem, looking for rocketcrowbar.com?