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As i guess that the nids are going to win the poll. i thought i would contribute some thought on how the tyranid might be or feel.

I don’t know about balancing since we don’t know what the imperum will be(im hoping storm troopers(or grenadiers)


i see all nids keeping low to the ground to avoid danger and appear smaller than what they are. So nids using 4 appendages to move about would look cool. for when they are being sneeky


termagaunts bodies
termagaunts are the most numerous of the tyranid race. They are the bog standard cannon fodder. Although they are fast they do not match the speed of a hormagaunt. And there weak middle arms are little use in combat.
Termagaunts may be armed with
Flesh borer (powerful short ranged weapon but with a slow delay in between shots shots)
Devourer     (long range rapid firing weapon but with very weak projectile)
Spinefists     (faster than a Flesh Borer, slower than a Devourer medium damage but short ranged)
Termagaunt spine fists are more powerful than Hormagaunt spine fists
Termagaunt secondary claws are very weak and really should not be used for combat. But it does happen. Termagaunts may clime walls as hormagaunts but only slower, these are used with flesh hooks.


hormagaunt bodies
hormagaunts are termagaunts on steroids. They are faster and they can leap further and both sets of arms are ready for combat.
These bodies are the only gaunt variant that can have scything talons
Whilst there secondary claws can be used for climbing sheer surfaces alongside flesh hooks as well as being used in combat far better than the termagaunts
They may be armed with spine fists instead of scything talons


Warrior bodies
Warriors are more numerous than humans in the universe. Saying that I will now describe them for ERS2

Warriors are large monsters armed with a variety of menacing weaponry.
They may have 2 of any from this list. And if doubled up they are linked together

Death spitter (death spitters fire very powerful long range bio seed weapon that covers a small area with bio acid via a small explosion but very long delay)

Flesh borer (powerful short ranged weapon but with a slow delay in between shots shots)

Devourer     (long range rapid firing weapon but with very weak projectile)

Spinefists     (faster than a Flesh Borer, slower than a Devourer medium damage but short ranged)

Small Scything talon (bog standard nid close combat weapon. It is fairly powerful for a gaunt but for a warrior; there are better things to be had.


But only 1 from the following

Venom cannon (extremely powerful long ranged weapon and the delay is not all that long. Although this thing is best at shooting at long ranges its to unwieldy at short range)

Barbed strangler (this weapon covers a very large area with a short lived plant that strangles living things not so powerful as the death spitter it has a large blast area that an effect many foes but has a long delay)

Rending claws (as a scything talon but it so much more powerful. These things can even take down a marine in one swipe)

Large scything talon. (Basically a faster rending claw that doesn’t pack quite so much punch but is far superior to the small scything talon)


Control

Mouse 1 (primary upper weapons) the things that deal the good stuff
Mouse 2 (secondary lower weapons) used for climbing for smaller species and combat
For the larger races it’s for the secondary weapon. (If the weapon is linked then this control is not used)

Movement
Run (normal pace quite)
Sprint (faster pace louder)
Jump
Leap (a jump that is very fast)
Climbing (normal pace and loud)
Crouch


I dunno, this is only a suggestion. I don’t know if you got anything planned. But here is food for thought

Well i cant tell you this, there are currently 7 gameplay styles based on variouys aspects of the 'nid race as a whole which will need to be voted on at some point to decide which one were gonna be using.

Only one of these styles actually has the whole 'nid race playable by humans. At least one of the playing styles also only features Genestealers and another focuses on what stealer cults do. A lot of thought has gone into co-op based variations where the nids are either fully or part A.I. controlled.

This really is a whole new mod were talking about here and the RS choose team, buyclass, buygear style of play isbeing steared away from. Although its all down to the next vote.

actiualy i was thinking after this post at game play for the nids.

maby everybody starts of as a gaunt with Devourers spine fists or flesh borers. depending on a vote at the start of the round

as you kill things you are upgraded. the hive mind(computer choses an available upgrade as soon as you kill a certain ammount of enemys. once you kill that many the next time you die you automaticly change or get upgraded(you have no choise you have no will in theses things. the hive mind choses what might be best for your brood

after a while of game play you may be given the choise to evolve into a different speicies. a hormagaunt or warrior.  this is the time when you get a choise of weapon only when you are chosen to be a warrior but hormagaunts can chose not to have spine fists.(the spine fist chose for hormagaunst may be rare)

also unless your a warrior you must have the same weapons as the rest of the species on the server. so once one nid gains a flesh borer the rest of the team will spawn with a flesh borer.

this is different and could be odd to see but migfht be sensible to keep unity.

maby someone could be appointed hive mind and they get to chose what upgrades the team can have at any given point.

sounds a bit too much like NS.

no with natrual selection you have the choise in witch weapon you have, and is compleatly resorse based.

+ the aliens dont have a commander/hivenode there all different entitys whilst the tyranids are all of the hivemind and compleatly controlled. when in range.

whiat i see with the nids is that players are allocated certain weapons by the hivemind and they have to life with it. these things change with time or by the voted player hivemind who becomes a warrior automaticly for example.

i say that people bid it to be the hivemind then players vote who they want to be the hivemind.

if there are no bidders then the hivemind chosses a commander for itself

after a while there may be a chance for another bid for the hivemind to keep things revolving.


OT
(i might post my ideas on the impirum classes in a while but lets get the nids in a nice big discussion)

one of the ideas were playing with runs along this line, but you will learn more of it in the upcoming vote on what RS2 will have when the decision about races is done with.

Thanks for your ideas Dakrnar.  

I dont think voting is a very good idea, it's unintuative, slows the game down and distracts from the action.  Plus of course you have to deal with people trying to abuse the voting system.

I'm currently thinking of the tyranid classes coming with a fixed set of weapons/biomods, much like DoD as this will make it easier to balance and require less menus and content.

in that case

basic classes

deathgaunts (devourer)
termagaunts (flesh borer)
spinegaunts (spine fists)
hormagaunts (scything talons)
genestealers (rending claws)

advanced classes

dunno about warriors but i suggest giving them the ability to have different weapon sets.

The devourer/flesh borer/spine fist variations dont sound like they would offer significantly varied gameplay to be worth doing them all.  I'd be inclined to go for the most average one and put the other two on the back burner.

That being said if we implimented 5 different classes of gaunts we might not need to make any other tyranid player models (for some of the modes), which would be a huge effort saving...

like ive said from the start, i would like to see all the classes and weapons having equal killing power, in much the same way that in DoD you can pick whatever weapon you like and still be able to kill with it.  this gets rid of the "paper, scissors, stone" style gameplay where one thing always beats another.  also i think you should be able to have access to all the weapons and classes from the start, maybe with the possible exception of a leader.

i like that last way of dividing up the gaunts, maybe we can come up with something similar for the warriors and things.

i see the devourer as being fairly rapid fire weapon. its accurate due to the living ammunition but doesnt pack much of a punch.
more of a weapon witch would make people duck there heads to avoid.
but it can kill

the flesh borer i see as being slower firing,just as accurate as the devourer, but packs a puch. this weapon does the real damage. as its the basic class

the spin fists, not as strong as the borer not as fast as the devorer, but lacks in accuracy. compared to the other two because it is not living ammunition.

(i see living ammunition being able to home on to the target. but as this would be extreamly hard to code im just thinking very accurate)

gaunt talons should be quick but not very effective

scything talons should be extreamly quck and do fairly good damage

rending claws are slower than the talons but do more damage than a scything talon


(what you think)

Wow wow wow; Living ammunition would not make it more accurate!!!

Living amunition would make it deal more damege, teh ammunition doesnt controll itself in the air, it tryes to burrow into the flesh of the opponent, Spinefists are twin-linked, they would be the ones that are the most accurate.

Seen the alien bio-gun in HL? It does just what you wants it to, so I don't think it would be hard to do in HL2.

But a more realistic weapon would do this: Fire a flying insect in a straight line, when close to target the insect folds out its wings and flies more slowly towards target.
I'm thinking of the electric mines from HL2. If you pick them up with the grav gun, you can fire them a distance, then they stops and home in on a target.

i never got those mines to work. but the flying insect sounds like a good idea

Erm, I think you're thinking of the wrong mines.  :?
I'm thinking of those electric metalballs that are hunting you when you are driving the home-made car.
You know, they cling to the car and give electric shocks.

Like parasites? That attack the player for a few seconds and the nid gains health back?