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Blob needs a rework
#1
Blob is, without a doubt, the most punishingly difficult antag role to play at the present time.  It has been literal months since I've seen a blob round end in a blob victory.  Something needs to be done, but honestly I barely have any idea what because blobs die so fast.

Absorption probably needs to be sped up, I was just in a blob round where I literally could not absorb someone on and completely surrounded by blob tiles because the bar filled up so slowly.  Furthest I ever saw it get was halfway, after what must have been five seconds.  Long enough for the tile to get killed by what appeared to be an unlit weldingtool.
Lit matches and candles forming a completely impassable wall to a blob is absurd and they should probably just be extinguished.
One idea that I see come up a lot is context sensitive clicks, with clicking on a tile attempting to spread to that tile, clicking on someone or something on a tile attacking them, and clicking on someone on a blob tile attempting to absorb them.  Hell, have absorption automatically start whenever someone's on a blob tile.

Maybe I'm just salty about the absorption thing, but I feel something really needs to be done about blob.
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#2
I think that the absorption time issue rings true.

I added that bar to fix a bug where you would absorb a person as long as they are standing on a blob tile after the timer is up. So you could start absorbing them, and they can escape, then 10 seconds later when it finishes, they could quickly step back on a blob tile and they die instantly from the absorption.

Right now, while you are being absorbed, you take decent damage, but it doesn't hit you with any stuns or effects to slow your movement. In theory, this was supposed to be a bugfix and not any sort of debuff to absorption, but I think it worked out that way.

I think there's a valid case for changing the absorption mechanic. Not sure what the best way to do that would be. Maybe shorten it a good deal, or have it do more damage or sap stamina or stun better.
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#3
Lightbulb 
Blob has a hazard of starting weak as heck and then getting basically impossible to deal with late into the round aside from bombs (arguably if the crew resorts to bombs, the blob's already won). 

I 100% agree with the absorb rate, and this falls into the early phase of getting steamrolled. When you have effectively no means to defend yourself, you get overwhelmed. You knock down a player, but they'll just come back again, pissed. 

When you're late game, this doesn't matter. Your damage output will cripple the player firstly, then you'll have turrets that further damage, and you'll have the edge of speed. 

I actually think to balance this properly you'll need to scale the strength of how absorb works downwards. 

What this means is that early on, absorb will work very quickly. This will give blobs the ability to not only fend off attackers, but eat them and get more points.

But as you get bigger (the more points you unlock) absorb rate will start to slow down, to offset the fact that you're pretty powerful now.

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In terms of mechanics, I think a stamina drain + slowdown is key. But it needs to be a soft touch, if you're including the above suggestion:

Stamina: -20/30 (while may seem quite low, don't forget you've probably smacked them a few times already, and vice versa, so their stamina will be running low as is).

Slowdown: A minor slowdown is needed here. High enough that it's a danger, but low enough that it's not dooming the target if they manage to escape.
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#4
I honestly think that early buffs for the blob to better let it develop and grow would be a wonderful idea, and removing those buffs as the blob strengthens.

Sundance's suggestion to greatly buff early-game absorption rates would be fantastic. Perhaps the strength of the buff you get to assist in absorbing people (stuns, slow-downs, and absorption rate) should be based on how many people you've already absorbed, until there's no more buffs and you must rely on your size and abilities to get people in situations where you can safely absorb them.

So, if you haven't absorbed anyone before, that first poor bastard to trip and fall onto you is probably boned. But, the fourth or fifth probably will be fine, provided you're not spamming blob tiles around them and pelting them with turrets, since your absorption rate will be comparatively very low.
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#5
What if, to absorb players, they needed to be physically moved to either an absorber tile like some kind of blob mouth, or the nearest nucleus? (Or just the nearest nucleus outright.)
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#6
That would just make playing blob even more agonizing.
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#7
Whatever changes are made, can we at least please make it so getting absorbed doesn't instantly and permanently take you out of the round?
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#8
What if absorption borrowed some ideas of the new Rev mechanics where it deals hella damage to you and the absorbtion only triggers when you actually die?
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#9
(09-11-2019, 06:21 PM)UrsulaMejor Wrote: What if absorption borrowed some ideas of the new Rev mechanics where it deals hella damage to you and the absorbtion only triggers when you actually die?

Yeah. Just make absorbtion automatic on dead bodies, and being in a Blob tile stops movement and rapidly hurts you. Less for the Blob player to manage and worry about
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#10
(09-11-2019, 07:06 PM)Frank_Stein Wrote:
(09-11-2019, 06:21 PM)UrsulaMejor Wrote: What if absorption borrowed some ideas of the new Rev mechanics where it deals hella damage to you and the absorbtion only triggers when you actually die?

Yeah. Just make absorbtion automatic on dead bodies, and being in a Blob tile stops movement and rapidly hurts you. Less for the Blob player to manage and worry about

Yeah, this is pretty good. Both of em, now that I think about it I don't know why absorption wasn't always passive and just starts eating away at whoever is stepping on a blob tile. I had an idea for blob to change it a good deal making blob tiles traversable, but it slows movement and just slowly eat away at you all the time and this is kinda similar, but I think that's a bigger change maybe. But removing the absorb ability button so that anyone standing on the tile starts being absorbed reduces some of the HUD ability bloat and removes some tediousness. Urs's suggestion for the final absorption happening when you actually die is good as well, absorption already does decent damage while it's in process, but as I said before, probably not enough stuns.

Last time I played blob since that change I made, it was rather tedious to absorb someone who was stepping in and out, and I'm probably better than most blob players since I've played it more than once. Plus, I think most people intuitively understand that a blob expanding on top of you leads to you start being absorbed so it just makes sense. 

The one counterpoint is that it will probably be a big buff to blob which is already strong; though it's hard for me to tell if it will really be much of a factor, because like others said earlier, blob needs more early buffs that peter out once it becomes enormous.
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#11
Would make it exceedingly dangerous to get near the blob physically, which is always good. The passive damage/stun to players on a blob tile should absolutely decrease depending on how many nuclei you have - essentially, as you grow stronger, the passive buffs which let you better survive initially go away, forcing you to depend on your unlocked abilities.

However, absorption is still an issue - it takes people out of the round. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as blob rounds are typically short. However, it might be nice to give absorbed player some kind of role, similar to the Changeling's hivemind. For example, creating a blob-chat wherein absorbed players are put into but can leave whenever they'd like. The blob can then use these blob-mind members to inhabit mobile bodies to help the blob do its bidding - or, heck, even spending a bunch of resources to create a new blob.
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#12
After another blob round that ended on Oshan when every single water covered tile on the station blew up courtesy of someone pouring welding fuel into it, I'm beginning to think that blob may not be a salvageable mode. Just remove it from rotation, at least temporarily. It's not any fun for the people playing blob.
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#13
Perhaps remove Blob Rounds from rotation but keep roundstart Blobs on mix, with one caveat:

Blobs that spawn on roundstart don't get to deploy on-station. Instead, they deploy on their own Z-Level, both for practice but also to possibly gain useful advantages so that they can get a better start in the round.

The better you do in the pre-spawn area, the more stuff you get when you spawn in (maybe some EVO points depending on how many nuclei you had?)
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#14
Having tried a late game blob after absorb was made automatic, I have to say it's a really great buff and makes things a lot more fun. I haven't played a roundstart blob yet but this might actually be all blob needed besides general QoL stuff.

I expected it to help, just not nearly as much as it did.
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#15
I kind of think most of the evo point stuff should just be rolled into blob at roundstart, so the person playing blob can focus more on spreading themselves and fighting the crew, and not have to worry so much about falling into a trap evo point wise.
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