Opinions on Gloom bugs and Predator strain

[Razer]

So there's a couple new enemy variants available. First we got the Predator strain which replaced Hunters with a variant that has stealth and spit attack and introduced slightly weaker variants of Stalkers without stealth. In the current MO we now have Gloom bugs (which look awesome by the way) that now explode on death with a burst of very minor acid damage and leave a small spore cloud for a few seconds.

For me I think the biggest impact was the Predator strain, mostly due to the Stalker variant forcing you to think differently about your loadout and tactics. Although of course when you've dealt with them a few times it becomes the "new normal". I know when they were released players were struggling a bit to adapt, but I think adding more challenge to specific missions/planets in the galactic war is a good idea.

However the gloom bugs for me don't really have an impact. 99% of them die outside the acid burst radius and the small spore cloud hardly makes a difference either. After playing a few missions they just feel like normal bugs. Which is kind of a shame. Kind of hoping for more impactful enemies.

Thoughts?

[The Dess 2023 GOTY Edition]

I love the predator strain mechanic as do most others. The doom bugs are fairly basic but there are quite a lot of them! Something about quantity being its own quality you know? I think they are fine where they are at present.

[PyroShark_]

I like them both. Something to note with the spored variants is that they have very washed colors compared to the standard variants. I have noticed them being able to get way closer to me through smoke effects because they aren't bright orange eyesores.

[Bicycle Knight]

pStalkers - worthless
gloom bugs - worthless, but in bigger quantities
pHunters - Hunter AI revert (old pre-nerf hunters presented as "new") and Spew acid/Go invis (used too rarely to be a consideration aka worthless)

Just the pHunters, and only their AI revert.

[Inardesco]

They're fine.

All the whining about them needing nerfs are just from people that have not experienced hunters at launch.

[Portico]

Predator strain is terrible. It should not be exclusive to some missions, it needs to be applied to bugs as a whole. Absolutely terrible design decision.

[Galahad]

the predator strain bugs shook things up a bit. i personally was in the camp of 'lets see what stalkers in patrols is like!' to spice up bugs gameplay, and quickly discovered that a 40 minute session of fighting stalkers was stressful. gave me malevelon creek vibes playing on the planet. i thought the acid attack was a bit much but it was fun to fight vicious hunters again. probably died to the acid attack a grand total of twice but still felt like the spike dmg on it was nuts.

the other ones? the warriors didnt seem to be much different to bile warriors with a different skin. exploding scavengers could be a really funny/dangerous thing if dozens of them spawned and moved faster but they just kinda plod along like a hedgehog until you kill em. the hunters same deal. and the explosion damage i wasnt noticing was killing people. not as much as bile bugs exploding does.

I wouldn't mind them adding these bugs as permanent optional challenges people can undertake on certain planets. I hope that's their plan with this going forward. Like, they're not everywhere - just in the gloom or on some special worlds.

This opens them up to do this with other factions too and really let us have the kinda game experience we want. Really tailor the challenge. Like imagine there's a rogue tribe of illuminate with different units that we can fight on other worlds. They could introduce sub factions without messing with their galactic war or needing to give them their own coloured space on the map. Even have planets that have 3 way battles giggidy

[Cheez3™]

predator variations should be the standard in DIFF 10 in all bugs planets.
the gloom bugs are disgusting for some reason, the design is ugly, I dont like em at all, I like normal bugs and the predator variants.

[Cheez3™]

Escrito originalmente por Portico:

Predator strain is terrible. It should not be exclusive to some missions, it needs to be applied to bugs as a whole. Absolutely terrible design decision.

this reply is like: I hate it, please apply it everywhere lmao

[Razer]

Escrito originalmente por Cheez3:

predator variations should be the standard in DIFF 10 in all bugs planets.
the gloom bugs are disgusting for some reason, the design is ugly, I dont like em at all, I like normal bugs and the predator variants.

Hm, I kind of like it that it's not everywhere. I do think they can be buffed though. But a general boost to all factions on higher difficulties would be good. But predator strain was supposed to be a special breed. So just applying that everywhere makes them a bit more mundane.

Escrito originalmente por The Dess 2023 GOTY Edition:

I love the predator strain mechanic as do most others. The doom bugs are fairly basic but there are quite a lot of them! Something about quantity being its own quality you know? I think they are fine where they are at present.

But their impact is rather low I think. Maybe it depends on chosen loadout and teamplay. But bugs generally don't get in my face too often. And there's so many spore chargers all the time that a little bit of extra spores isn't going to make a huge difference. Maybe turn some of them into kamikaze bugs or something.

[Portico]

Escrito originalmente por Cheez3:

Escrito originalmente por Portico:

Predator strain is terrible. It should not be exclusive to some missions, it needs to be applied to bugs as a whole. Absolutely terrible design decision.

this reply is like: I hate it, please apply it everywhere lmao

On the contrary, I think the predator strain was fun. But it sucks that it is temporary.

[megareader5000]

It's awesome, they're awesome, this game is awesome. I am happy

[Summoner]

I've played against them for a couple of days now, I'm honestly not a fan. Bugs stopped being a horde shooter and just became a game of avoiding annoyances such as slows, vision and aoe.
Used to be a bug diver Now all they do is annoy me, in b4 skill issue, i clear them on 10 easily. but it's just not fun to do. the satisfying loop that is bug killing has been broken