New Infested Enemy: Reclusoid

[Obe-Ron-Kenobi]

You know, we have so many types of enemies in this game, yet none of them interact with walls any. I don't know why, but I find this kind of odd, especially considering Warframes verticality. So I have an idea, imagine: freaky lookin large hexapods that crawl on walls and are generally very discrete and out of reach. Ranged only units (mostly) that camps walls (I swear I'm not trying to copy Halo 3's pure ranged forms).

Two different variants: combatants and spawners. (subclass names not final) 

Combatants are fast and have a rapid fire-like "needler-esque" attack. Crawl all over walls and attempt to hit you a bunch and then hide/run away. Has to be stationary when shooting. They can secrete stuff (similar to infested moas) that stick to walls that blind and hold you in place (if you're on the wall) for 2-4 seconds. Combatants can pounce off walls if you're close enough and attempt to grapple you for massive melee damage, but prefer to stay on walls and only do so when in around ~10m range.

• Aesthetic wise they are relatively average in size, a bit larger than a charger. I imagine they have leg joints that contort like a spider (see spoiler image) but have moa legs that have been infestified. Body is a big organic blob with an abdomen. Abdomen has a big glowing green part on the underside which indicates its weakness. Front section has two tiny Grineer arms sticking out to grapple prey. Alongside its back, two sections unfold where tons of spikes stick out and shoot when an enemy is seen. Head is like an ant and an ancient healer had a terrible one night stand. 
• Spoiler

  

   

Spawners go invisible if they aren't moving and stick egg sacks to walls spawning either infested drones, maggots, or combatants. Very slow. Have a sniper like weapon that shoots for a LOT of damage at a long range but has extremely slow fire rate (worse than Grineer snipers, but same visuals because the spawner uses a still half sentient Grineer incorporated into their biomass) 

• Aesthetic wise they are a bit larger than the combatants. The color depends on the location, as like a cephalopod, they attempt to match the color of wall they are on. Usually invisible anyway though, only seen when charging sniper shot. Similar body structure to combatants but with a few key differences: Abdomen is greatly enlarged (how it plants eggs). Protruding from the abdomen is a large biomass connecting the body to abdomen (very similar to boiler body) however, sticking out of the boiler-like body is half of a Grineer sniper with one arm and head intact, which the spawner uses to snipe victims from afar. Instead of moa feet, it has hands on the tips of its legs. Weak-spot glows orange but only glows if flipped over. 

 

Can shoot them off walls by targeting each leg. Weak spot for both is under six legs (think of the skultula weak spots in zelda) which is extremely susceptible to impact. If a combatant is flipped over exposing this spot, you can preform a ground finisher on them, otherwise they are immune to finishers.  

These enemies are intended to be ancients, so they don't spawn at super high frequencies but will as difficulty ramps up.

 

This is likely a very tall order since it would require programming pathing for walls (which I'm sure would be a pain in certain level geometry) but I feel like this would add some excellent variety to the infested class. Hardly any of them are ranged units, and having special encounters with enemies that are generally stealthy would both be spooky and somewhat tactical (hunting down spawners, jumping and parkouring your way to combatants etc.). Overall, I think it would be really fun to see a unique type of game play added to the rather standard faction.  

Thank you all for reading! Hope to have good discussions with you while you're here!

(No art to speak of at the moment unfortunately... hopefully soon tm)

Edited October 10, 2019 by Obe-Ron-Kenobi