ALIENS : Part 4 Overview:- The Alien species relies heavily on speed, but not literally; Aliens must use quick thinking and speed to gain the upper hand in battle. Aliens must reach the human cities before the other species and claim it as there as soon as possible. Aliens are limited in the number of units and structures unlike the 2 other species, but their structures and units serve the most purposes of all, giving Aliens an efficient army. Alien units will heal as time passes but their structures require them to be re-resinned by the Aliens again when damaged. To defeat an opponent, the Alien player must rely heavily on accumulating the most number of hosts and use lots of well thought sneak attacks to eradicate the opponent's species with one quick strike. ------------------------------- Perspective:- The Aliens have no radar of any sorts, but they view the map differently; all units in the game are highlighted by pheromones that leave long trails. The color of the pheromone is determined by the color of the unit's team. All units except synthetics and vehicles leave a long trail behind them reveal where the unit has been or even hinting where the enemy base is. This pheromone system allows the Aliens to notice all incoming attacks and making them fairly immune from any type of sneak attacks. Aliens use this system to quickly detect all potential hosts since neutral beings have a white pheromone. ------------------------------- Resource Management:- Aliens have the weirdest and perhaps most efficient resource gathering/usage ability of all. Aliens do not rely on credits, but rather on resin to build their bases, but resin is produced by Adult Aliens, and the only way you can get more Adult Aliens is by capturing more hosts which in turn increase your Alien population and your resin supply. Each adult Alien has 100 resin points that are used up when cocooning, constructing or repairing the hive. These resin points slowly regenerate but having one Adult Alien construct the Queen's chamber is a hard task, that's why the Alien player must recruit multiple Aliens to construct a structure, which saves time and resin. The downside of this resource management is the fact that the Aliens require lots of hosts to balance the Aliens that attack and the Aliens and construct, which is why the Alien player must beat the other species to the human cities in the first place. ------------------------------- Instigation:- The Alien species start a game with an Alien Queen, and 5 adult Aliens (from humans). ------------------------------- Units:- Name: Facehugger Purpose: Implant Alien Embryo Prerequisite(s): Egg Armor: Light Speed: V.Fast Weapon(s): Facehug Description: The dreaded Facehugger is the foundation of any Alien base. The facehugger serves a multitude of purposes; by far the most important is increasing the Alien population by implanting an embryo in a host. This process due will take a few seconds after that the facehugger will crawl away and die. The facehugger will automatically leave its egg when the egg detects an intruder nearby. The facehugger may leave the hive but if it doesn't find a host as soon as possible it will die, so it is not advised to gather up an army of facehuggers and raid an enemy base, which is all the way across the map. Facehuggers are capable of scaling surfaces of all kinds that include cliffs, this reduces the time needed to move to a certain place. Facehuggers are incapable of attacking vehicles and synthetics only; everything else is fair game. Facehuggers like their larger kin have acid for blood, which is extremely hazardous and will cause lots of damage to anyone unfortunate to come in contact with it. Once the facehugger implants an embryo, it is highly advised that the host be cocooned into a Carcass Cocoon to ensure his/her safety and also allow direct control over the embryo. Name: Chestburster Purpose: N/A Prerequisite(s): Carcass Cocoon -or- Host Body. Armor: Light Speed: Fast Weapon(s): N/A Description: The Chestburster is a fast but weak creature that is an adult alien at a young age. The Alien stays at this phase for approx. 20 secs then the Chestburster quickly molts into an Adult Alien. The most important factor of being in this stage is stay hidden until the CB molts, otherwise you can kiss your ass goodbye, won't take much to kill this lil' critter. That is why it is highly advised to keep your hosts within the base parameters. Name: Adult Alien Purpose: Hive Worker, All-round offensive/defensive unit. Prerequisite(s): Host Armor: Variable Speed: Variable Weapon(s): Claws, Tail, Unique attack. Description: The Adult Alien is the best all-round unit in the game and the most essential and efficient Alien unit; Here's a detailed overview of this awesome creature. Special Abilities: 1-Adult Aliens can capture/gather hosts from human cities. They can also carry eggs. 2-Adult Aliens can scale various surfaces which include cliffs. 3-Adult Aliens can construct/repair a multitude of hive structures using its resin(100 points); which regenerates slowly. 4-Adult Aliens can be mounted on Resin Fortifications which gives them the ability to pounce on incoming enemy units; effectively making the Adult Alien a living long-range projectile. The pounce causes heavy damage. 5-Adult Aliens can attack using their claws(medium damage), tail(heavy damage), or acid-venom spit(low damage, paralyzes); which is available after a certain amount of kills. 6- Adult Aliens can infest ANY structure after the structure's health drops below 35%-45%; the structure will immediately be abandoned and/or self destruct. 7- Adult Aliens can molt into a queen if no egg/facehugger/host/queen is available (This is indicated when the molt tab is lit). This process takes 30-50 secs. 8- All Adult Aliens can head bite, but only dead corpse which restores 75% of their health. 9- All Adult Aliens are excellent swimmers, they can only use their claws when swimming. Adult Aliens break up into various strains depending on the host; which are listed below. Runner: Host = Dog; Armor = Medium; Speed = V.Fast; Unique = Pounce Attack (Causes heavy damage, Runner runs at high speeds and pounces onto a target) Alien: Host = Human; Armor = Medium; Speed = Fast; Unique = Acid-Venom Spit (Causes low damage but paralyzes) Predalien: Host = Predator; Armor = Heavy; Speed = Fast; Unique = All normal attacks cause double damage. Heavy-Runner: Host = Livestock; Armor = Heavy; Speed = Fast; Unique = Ram Attack (Causes extreme damage, The HR runs at high speeds in a straight line and rams into a target, this attack can be used on structures) Special Feature: Adult Aliens also have a special ability; after 5-10 kills, the adult Alien will shed the cowl on its smooth head, revealing the intricate ridges upon its head. Signifying maturity, the Adult Alien will change appearance slightly, gain more speed and strength, even enhance their unique ability. Notice: Unique attacks need to time regenerate once used; this applies to all Adult Alien strains except Predalien. Name: Praetorian Purpose: Juvenile Queen, Hive Guard Prerequisite(s): Carcass Cocoon Armor: V.Heavy Speed: Fast Weapon(s): Claw, Tail Description: The Praetorian is a tank-like Alien with immense strength and speed; it serves the purpose of guarding the hive from all types of attackers. The only way an Alien player can get a Praetorian is by selecting the carcass cocoon and selecting it to molt into a Praetorian, which takes more time but is worth the wait. Praetorians can also instantly molt into a queen whenever they wish too. Name: Queen Alien Purpose: Egg Layer, Dominant Alien. Prerequisite(s): Carcass Cocoon, Molting Armor: Extremely Heavy Speed: Fast Weapon(s): Claw, Tail Description: The Queen is the hive matriarch, she is the soul of the hive; guard her well. A player has a queen when they first start the hive; deploy her and a large ovipositor will start to develop 'behind' her. To increase the strength of the Queen, Aliens can construct a heavy layer of resin around her, giving her a chamber of some sorts. The Queen will start to lay eggs, one every 10-15 secs. Adult Aliens can move the eggs where ever. The Queen can be un-deployed in times of emergency that will cause her to release from the ovipositor and become mobile again, this also allows the queen to take full use of her massive claws and tails that can kill the average marine in one swipe. The Queen either comes from a carcass cocoon which was specifically told to develop a Queen or when a Praetorian or Adult Alien are forced to molt into a queen. ------------------------------- Structures:- The Hive - An overview of the hived must be established before we go into detail of the hive structures. The Alien Hive must be constructed over resin, which automatically spreads (like Zerg Creep) from the Queen's Chamber outwards and expands the more structures there is. The resin tiles serve a deeper purpose too, they slow down all intruders and -to a degree- camouflage Aliens. Hive structures are also constructed and repaired by resin that is secreted by Adult Aliens; the resin quickly hardens and is a very effective defense. The more Aliens that construct the structure the faster and less resin consuming it is. Now for those hive structures... Name: Egg Purpose: Houses Facehuggers, Base Defense. Resin Cost: 0 Strength: Light Description: The Egg is a small one tile in size Hive structure that CAN be moved by Adult Aliens. It automatically launches a single facehugger when an intruder comes within medium range of it; this ability makes it a perfect base defense if placed near narrow passages or vulnerable hive areas. The egg will wither away after its facehugger is gone. The Egg is extremely vulnerable to flame weapons, if eggs are close enough they can ignite each other. Fire can be extinguished using resin of coarse. Eggs are laid by the queen; one every 10 seconds. Name: Carcass Cocoon Purpose: Houses/Defends Host, Allows Player to select the strain of the embryo Resin Cost: 40 Strength: Medium Description: Carcass Cocoons are tall columns of resin that house up to 2 hosts at any time. Carcass Cocoons are essential to a thriving Alien hive. They don't cost much but serve an important purpose; not only does keep the host and its embryo safe during the gestation period but it also allows the Alien player to have direct control over the type of embryo, by selecting one of the 3 hosts suspended on the carcass cocoon, a tab will appear that Allows the player to select either Adult Alien, Praetorian, or Queen - each of coarse has varying gestation period but the result is the same. Once the host has served its purpose it will wither away. Name: Egg Chamber Purpose: Houses/Defends Eggs Resin Cost: 40 Strength: Heavy Description: Egg Chambers are a unique structure, because they can be built anywhere on the map. The egg chamber houses up to six Alien eggs, it keeps them safe from all forms of damage thanks to its thick resin walls. The Egg chambers also have a defensive function; they increase the detection range of the egg 2 times, meaning that the Facehuggers will have greater detection range, meaning the eggs will open and launch the huggers earlier. This option can be cancelled by removing the defense mode, which simply makes the eggs lie dormant until they are needed. Adult Aliens must grab eggs and fill the egg chambers; otherwise it will remain empty. Name: Resin Fortification (a.k.a. Resin Walls) Purpose: Defensive wall, long range defense Resin Cost: 65 Strength: Extremely Heavy Description: The Resin Fortification is a thick THICK wall of resin that can be chained into a wall that protects the hive. RF can withstand all sorts of high impact weapons without chipping a resin; it also serves a deadlier purpose; Resin Walls can be mounted by Adult Aliens which not only camouflages them but gives them the ability to pounce off the wall onto intruding enemy units from long ranges, Aliens can also attach to the Resin Walls and spit acid farther than usual. No hive is safe without a decent resin fortification. Aliens can also resin-fortify existing buildings, so that if an Alien infest an city building; it can resin-fortify it and make it twice if not 3 times more resistant to damage. Name: Queen's Chamber Purpose: Queen-based Defense Resin Cost: 120 Strength: V.Heavy Description: The Queen and her egg-sac are not protected what so ever, so what's an Alien player to do? CONSTRUCT A CHAMBER! The Queen's Chamber is a thick resin dome-like structure that surrounds and protects the queen from all manner of attack. The Queen's chamber also slightly increases egg production. It is highly advised that this structure be built ASAP otherwise; your queen is at great risk of being obliterated by the opposition. Name: Infested Structures. Purpose: Steals Neutral/Enemy structures instantly. Resin Cost: 100(also a single Adult Alien) Strength: Doubles original building strength Description: Infested Structures are the product of an Adult Alien penetrating ANY structure after its health drops below 35%-45%; This causes the building to immediately switch to the Alien Player's control. The player can then proceed to either self-destruct the building or mount MORE Aliens inside which makes the infested structure into a strong bunker. If the building is in an enemy base, it is highly advised to self-destruct it, especially if its an Atmosphere Processor or Energy Sift which causes massive damage when it explodes. - - - - - - [AvP War: General] [AvP War: USCM] [AvP War: Predators] [Discuss in Forums]