Species 8472

posted on April 11th, 2009, 7:14 pm

Crazy Pipe Dream

Idea of having a full race 8472 based represented by spacial disturbances with hp like normal stations however the hp are only susceptible by counter 8472 special weapons (new form of gameplay & timesink to discourage rushing.)

Strategy
* How long to take to get that special weapon?
* Should all ships get it? maybe having limited counter shiptypes means more difficulty against 8472 since they would concentrate fire to kill counter ships
* What type of special weapon?
im thinking area of effect torpedoes (or guided) with the 8472 being impervious to normal weapons researching the counter 8472 special weapon would mean you would have to find ways to slow the ships down or disable their movement to hit them with counter 8472 weapons. (fun?)
* 8472 ships are expensive and godlike so not many types are needed

Economy:
spacial disturbances can be built over moons to gather resources to build a spacial disturbance for a 8472 ship. or spacial disturbances could be built over nebulas on maps? race specific resource gathering? 


Is this feasible does it sound fun?  Good idea?

<3

posted on April 11th, 2009, 7:30 pm

one problem with 8472 that i've found is that the AI dsnt like using evolution

posted on April 11th, 2009, 7:41 pm

Yep. Plus, if a (remembering regular stock Armada II) human player is playing 8472 against anything else, it can spam the active organisms and evolve them into cruisers all at once with quick resource management etc. The first 5 mins would simply be them overrunning everything in their path.

posted on April 11th, 2009, 7:42 pm

I think they are planned for NPC or just on specific maps as map units at the moment... I don't know what fun they'd be though to play as... more like a gimick to play against though (first one to destroy 2 ships gets *insert award/victory condition* )  :thumbsup:

posted on April 11th, 2009, 7:44 pm

one problem with 8472 that i've found is that the AI dsnt like using evolution

They could just not use evolution then. Just because it was in stock A2 doesn't mean that a mod version has to have it...

They could be done completely differently (if the team wanted them in), so problems like this wouldn't really be valid.

posted on April 11th, 2009, 10:31 pm

Species 8472 was kinda replaced with the Noxter race.

[DOCa Cola]

posted on April 13th, 2009, 1:08 am

Last edited by DOCa Cola on April 13th, 2009, 1:13 am, edited 1 time in total.

when we started with fleet operations for armada 2 we decided against 8472 to come as full race into fleet operations. there is much to less known about that race from the shows. what have we seen so far? two types of very similar vessels and one special facility. we even don't even know their actual name, just their borg designation...
don't get me wrong, 8472 was in interesting foe for the borg in the episodes. i was very surprised they were released as full race in armada 2 with that few information available and i really didn't like what they made out of that race in armada 2, as i imagined 8472 totally different back then... i think it's better not to try to complete that race and just keep them as a mighty foe that may appear on a map

posted on April 13th, 2009, 1:52 am

when we started with fleet operations for armada 2 we decided against 8472 to come as full race into fleet operations. there is much to less known about that race from the shows. what have we seen so far? two types of very similar vessels and one special facility. we even don't even know their actual name, just their borg designation...
don't get me wrong, 8472 was in interesting foe for the borg in the episodes. i was very surprised they were released as full race in armada 2 with that few information available and i really didn't like what they made out of that race in armada 2, as i imagined 8472 totally different back then... i think it's better not to try to complete that race and just keep them as a mighty foe that may appear on a map

I agree...interesting idea, but I've just never been a fan of 8472 as anything more than what they were in "Voyager": a bizarre, unexpected threat to prove that the Borg weren't the ultimate power in the universe.

posted on April 13th, 2009, 2:08 am

thanks for answering

i was mostly interested in the new forms of game-play & features u guys could do, less so then specific races 

posted on April 13th, 2009, 3:43 am

Would it be possible to have a radom chance that 8472 appears on the map? If so, then would it be possible to insert a researchable weapon to counter 8472? Ex:

Player A and B have been playing on the map for 15 minutes, suddenly one of them encounters 8472, which isn't always on the map, and has to research anti-8472 weapons to destroy them.

Next game, the same players on the same map play, but 8472 don't show up, therefore their research doesn't.

I don't know if it's at all possible to do this, because I don't know anything about coding or languages or anything. Just a neat concept idea.

posted on April 13th, 2009, 4:48 pm

I agree with what doca is saying.
But to be fair, the noxter are a repackaging of 8472 under a new name to compensate for the fallacies of A2's attempt at getting an organic race into the game - while choosing to retain canon race designations instead of inventing a new one.

For new gameplay style I was recommending a variant of chassis redux as the development of the tech tree - not the romulan chassis reuse for new weapons or platforms, but a chassis augmentation allowing the creation of ships from shipyards with better stats and of course higher costs on the same chassis base while still being able to building the old chassis for cheaper and lesser stats.
this could be taken further to augment specific hulls with special weapons adaptable by researching at a yard and apply to all those ships from the yard - not a particular class.

also, another form of interesting gameplay change IMO would be the ability to have weak chassis which rely more on special weaponry that packs a punch - like subspace weapons or biogenic weapson. some accessible at the outset like the cloak on rommies or klings which would help add a little spice.

dunno if focusing on just 8472 would be fun in the long run - cos atm we are attracted to it by virtue of its absence.
"You will find that wanting is often more pleasurable an experience than having. It is illogical but it is often true".

posted on April 13th, 2009, 5:00 pm

also, another form of interesting gameplay change IMO would be the ability to have weak chassis which rely more on special weaponry that packs a punch

I'm really happy you said this.  I'm writing some ideas of what I'd like to see the Iconians play as.  The way I see it, they have a lot of advanced technology, but are inexperienced at building starships.  (Since they had Gateways, there was no need)  Hopefully I'll post in a few days.

posted on April 13th, 2009, 8:27 pm

Excellent, looking forward to it Mal