I know pre-launch this topic was discussed ad nauseum, but I think it's time to revisit with all of the "Balance Test" changes floating around. If you want a truly asymmetrical experience, it's time to get rid of the alien commander.
It never really made sense, and it seems all of the balance efforts recently have gone into reworking how the alien side works -- obviously since aliens acquire team res, they need to spend it on something, so UWE keeps rethinking the upgrade path for the aliens, what the kharamander does and how he/she influences the game, etc. At first it was a "cosmic gardener", but now the Balance Test changes requires much more micromanaging from the alien side, and the whole biomass thing is overly complicated and doesn't make any sense.
Removing the kharamander will simplify alien gameplay and work within the tenets of Natural Selection being an asymmetrical game, in addition to heightening the role and importance of the gorge, which I believe will bring better balance to the game (less aliens out on the field harassing marine shit).
This would also mean axing cysts. Alien structures would no longer require infestation to build on, but once the structures are built, infestation sprouts out from them, infecting nearby areas. This would alert marines as to when an alien base is present or nearby. This would also eliminate the annoyance of cyst building wars, where marines are constantly killing cysts, and kharamanders are constantly rebuilding them.
It never really made sense, and it seems all of the balance efforts recently have gone into reworking how the alien side works -- obviously since aliens acquire team res, they need to spend it on something, so UWE keeps rethinking the upgrade path for the aliens, what the kharamander does and how he/she influences the game, etc. At first it was a "cosmic gardener", but now the Balance Test changes requires much more micromanaging from the alien side, and the whole biomass thing is overly complicated and doesn't make any sense.
Removing the kharamander will simplify alien gameplay and work within the tenets of Natural Selection being an asymmetrical game, in addition to heightening the role and importance of the gorge, which I believe will bring better balance to the game (less aliens out on the field harassing marine shit).
This would also mean axing cysts. Alien structures would no longer require infestation to build on, but once the structures are built, infestation sprouts out from them, infecting nearby areas. This would alert marines as to when an alien base is present or nearby. This would also eliminate the annoyance of cyst building wars, where marines are constantly killing cysts, and kharamanders are constantly rebuilding them.