Infested Parasitic Eximus, and general readability improvement ideas

[Trentiel]

Eximus have bothered me since their introduction, because while they add unique gameplay they don't really add unique enemy appearances. Not in a meaningfulway. Recolors are meaningless when the lighting in the environment, or the sheer number of enemies coming at you at once, means you can't see the recolored textures. The silhouettes actually have to change. And adding an orange energy silhouette doesn't do the trick, because that orange glow could mean ANY eximus type.

I also think that there are a few enemies that need their own look, because of their mechanics. I drew this sketch a while ago to address two enemies I feel need some love. The Ancient Healer and the Infested Parasitic Eximus. I drew a charger for reference, since they can only be parasitic type eximus.

The idea for the parasitic eximus is that they have these little barnacles in their back. With waving wiggling tentacles, the tentacles would automatically attach to the player when in range and start sucking energy out of you. This would give the player an indicator of what's happening. Presently I feel the energy drain effect is too subtle for something so crucial to gameplay. Also, in my design, the barnacle can only latch onto one player. If the eximus has multiple barnacles, then it can latch that number of players. Thinking that the smaller enemies would only have 1 or 2. The larger, like Parasitic Ancients could have 3-4.

If DE is going to change infested eximus (as covered in Devstream #87) I knew I had to pitch this idea now or never. If they buff eximus like this, there needs to be some readability changes added in there too.

I think the base ancient healer deserves it's own unique model because they are effectively nullifiers for infested. Only they don't have a bubble and have kinda poor visual indicators. Yes, I know they pulse green waves. It's still frustrating that they don't stand out. They have a unique (and arguably very important) role in combat, they should have a look that reflects that. This would make them kinda large, tanky looking units. Leave the original model for disruptor and toxic ancients.

Edited February 4, 2017 by Trentiel

[Evanescent]

I've been going on and on about this ever since they were first patched into the game, but doesn't seem like it has had any effect. I dread the new system with energy leech eximii.

+1